The Holy Family squad carved a space as they became the first team in school history to capture runner-up honors at the Class 4A State Volleyball Tournament. The Tigers battled their way through two days of competition to climb the ladder to the finals, where perennial title contender Lewis Palmer won in the championship round 3-0, and ended Holy Family's title bid.
"It was a great season and we lost to the best team in the state this year," Tigers Coach Krista Solomon said after the finals. "Lewis Palmer ran a faster pace style than we normally see. Our blocks struggled a little at first with the Rangers tempo but we adjusted and I feel we played very well tonight and all through the tournament."
There were a lot of smiles as the team accepted the trophy.
"This tournament has been an amazing experience for me and for our team," senior Samantha Weber said after the finals. "I am very honored and proud to be part of this team that is the first Holy Family team to finish second at state. It was a long two days and we had to battle. But we just kept encouraging each other, picking each other up through the whole tournament. It has been a very special time for us."
Weber played libero or defensive specialist for the Tigers.
"This whole tournament has been good for me," she said. "I just made up my mind as a senior I would represent my school, pick up my team as I focus to play my best for God and for my team.
The Tigers were one of 12 Class 4A teams in the Nov. 10-11 state playoffs. The 12 teams were divided into four pools of three teams each for round-robin play. The pool winner advanced to the semifinals.
Holy Family and Niwot finished pool play with 2-0 records and played a match Nov. 11 to determine which of them would advance to the semifinals. The Tigers won the first two sets and Niwot won the second two sets. Holy Family won the tie-breaker set 16-14 to become the first Tiger team to advance to the state volleyball semifinals.
"This is an emotional win for us because we knew Niwot is a phenomal team and we would have to play our best to get the win," Coach Solomon said after the match. "We set a goal to advance in the final four this season and to achieve that is very special for our team and our school."
The Tigers played Valor in the semifinals. It was a match of two very good volleyball teams. Both teams scored points with line-drive spikes and both teams played excellent defense, diving to the floor to keep the ball in play and getting a deflected ball back in bounds, which made points hard to come by. However, Holy Family prevailed and won the match 3-1 to advance to the finals.
This is the second year as head volleyball coach for Solomon and she said this is a group of hard-working players who pride themselves on putting team first.
"We have a few girls who just play volleyball but most of our girls are multi-sport athletes," she said. "For example, we have girls on this team who will also play basketball in the winter season and others who will run track or play soccer in the spring. We have three girls who will graduate in 2017 but we should be able to come back strong next season with a solid group of girls returning who have had the experience of finishing second at state."
from Lakewood Sentinel - Latest Stories http://lakewoodsentinel.com/stories/Tigers-take-second-place-at-state,239621
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