DENVER – For the third time in the last four years, the Sedgwick County girls volleyball team is the Class 2A state champion.

On Saturday night at the Denver Coliseum, the second-seeded Cougars (25-4) won 25-23, 25-23, 22-25, 25-10 over No. 6 Wiggins (20-11) to bring home the program’s third first-place trophy.

“They’ve all been really special to me,” Sedgwick County head coach Alissa Renquist said. “This group of girls worked really hard. It’s like family and I’ve been blessed with a bunch of good athletes and good girls. They make it fun and they make me look good. They’re just really fun girls to coach. I got to experience winning with my other daughter (Jensen Renquist) and now my freshman (Addison Renquist) is on this team, so I got to experience it with her, so that’s a lot of fun.”

Fittingly, the Cougars had to get past Wiggins to win it all.

In a local rivalry that has risen to the statewide level, Sedgwick County and Wiggins have faced off in each of the past five 2A title matches. Sedgwick County also won 3-1 against Wiggins earlier in the state tournament on Friday, and also swept the regular season series between the two Lower Platte League rivals.

“It’s kind of crazy,” Renquist said. “We weren’t expecting to play them twice in the tournament. It’s a great rivalry. They have a great program and I’m just blessed that we get to play them and we give them good competition.”

Wiggins beat Sedgwick County, which won back-to-back titles in 2021 and 2022  in the 2A title match last season and in 2020.

To reach the state championship match, Sedgwick County swept No. 5 Colorado Springs Christian. In the opposite semifinal, Wiggins won 3-1 over No. 1 Simla.\

McClave ends Merino's state title streak

For the first time in a long time, there’s a new champion in Class 1A girls volleyball.

On Saturday night at the Denver Coliseum, the McClave Cardinals won 25-22, 25-20, 19-25, 25-22 over No. 1 seed and four-time defending champion Merino in the 1A state championship match. Not only did the victory end a four-year dominant run for the Rams, it was also the first in the history of the McClave program.

“I’m just so incredibly proud of this team and how hard they’ve worked to put the heart and dedication into creating something like this,” McClave head coach Melissa Steinbrunn said. “There’s a lot of cousins on this team. There’s a lot of family members on this team. Their mommas played together on this same court and never got it done. To bring something home to our community after this winning year for this program, I’m just super proud of them.”

Not only had Merino (26-2) won the last four 1A titles, the Rams are second all-time with 15 girls volleyball titles. McClave’s victory was only Merino’s third loss in the last four years. The Rams' other two losses during that span were to Fleming.

Saturday’s title match victory was also a redemptive moment for McClave (24-6), which suffered a 3-0 defeat at the hands of the same Merino squad earlier in the tournament on Friday.

“No one saw us coming,” Steinbrunn said. “We came in as the No. 5 and everybody looked past us and kind of thought we were almost a joke. We called it the revenge tour 2024 because everybody that we matched up against had beaten us earlier in the season, and so we wanted to beat them all. We hadn’t had a chance to see Merino until we got here and they swept us when we got here. We wanted to come and take it back.

“They’re such an incredible program. So many state championships. That was an incredible situation and it was amazing. I don’t even know how to feel right now.”

On Thursday during the opening day of the state tournament, Rams senior Brooklyn Sutter broke the all-time state record for career assists, which was previously set at 3,715 by Colorado Springs Christian’s Cassie Davis from 2013-16.

While McClave had never won a girls volleyball title prior to Saturday, the Cardinals finished runner-up three consecutive seasons from 2003-05.

To reach the championship match, Merino swept No. 11 Briggsdale. In the opposite semifinal, McClave won 3-2 over No. 3 Fleming.