One could certainly call the Class 3A volleyball state championship won by Colorado Springs Christian School a "Fantastic Fifth."

And that’s how Morgan Broekhuis and her teammates can look back on their 25-22, 25-21, 25-22 victory Saturday at the Denver Coliseum over Faith Christian. It was the fifth consecutive title by the Lions, who finished the season 28-2, as well as the second under coach Mike Broekhuis, Morgan’s dad.

There could be at least one more championship in the offing for the 6-foot-5 Morgan Broekhuis as the News' Most Valuable Player of the tournament is only a junior. But then again, this is a team that will graduate only one senior.

Broekhuis was simply dominating at the net the entire tournament. She finished the championship match with 17 kills and three blocks. But the Lions are a team loaded with power as junior 6-footer Brianne Vande Griend added 15 kills to the winning effort. From there, defense played its part as the Lions were able to contain, to some extent, Faith’s equally hard hitter, Hanna Gibeau.

“Our plan was to stick to what we do best, pass and smash,” Morgan Broekhuis said. “Once we get the ball in the air to the net, from there it’s easy. From there, we just wanted to play great defense and I think we did.

“We expected them to get kills from (Gibeau). We had to keep our heads in it and hope for everything to go well. We wanted to keep her moving and try to hit away from her. She is an awesome player, too.”

The match was as close as one would expect. Neither team could manage more than a four-point advantage through the first two games. But CSCS did have a five-point margin in the third (15-10), that became too much for Faith to overcome.

“We would get in the long rallies, just trying to keep the ball in play,” said Vande Griend, who shied away from the power on various occasions. “We knew we could play defense against their hitting. I was trying to mix it up, as we knew we had the power and throw something different at them.

“There was tons of pressure, too, going for five. Everyone kept telling us we were going to win. We just wanted to try and do our best and bring as much heat as we could and whatever happened, happened.”

Containing Gibeau made the victory even sweeter.

“We played as hard as we could and we felt we could have done better,” said Gibeau, who led the Eagles with 14 kills. “There is nothing more we could have done against them. Morgan and Brianne did very well, they are definitely very good athletes. But I think we could have done a little more to shut them down.”

Those, too, were the thoughts of Faith Christian coach C.L. Hubbard.

“I thought we had a real good tournament,” Hubbard said. “CSCS is just a dominating team and (Broekhuis and Vande Griend) are just amazing players that I have a lot of respect for. I thought that we could maybe beat them. But they are also such a tall team and they just ended up killing more balls.

“Hannah is also such a great player for us. She had a great season and is confident all the time no matter what. I’m very proud of her. But I’m proud of all the girls, they’ve had a great season.”

No doubt it was a great season for Mike Broekhuis, but there were a few uneasy moments.

“We really didn’t feel we played well all weekend, but (Saturday) in the final we came out and pounded the ball about as good as we can,” Broekhuis said. “Our passes were there and I think we surprised them with our power. We got them off base a bit and they had a hard time recovering.

“Morgan came up really big for us too. We tried to mix things up with a little balance and sometimes Brianne was a little tip happy. But, she brought the heat when she needed to.”

Colorado Springs Christian had advanced to the championship with a 25-18, 25-18, 27-25 victory against Eaton in the semifinals. The Lions ended pool play beating Holy Family, 25-14, 25-18, 25-22 earlier in the day.

Faith Christian needed every bit of its effort to top a youthful Valley outfit, winning in five sets 25-21, 24-26, 25-23, 23-25, 15-12 to advance to the final. Gibeau led the way with 34 kills, most off the sets from Kelly Tycksen.

But Valley, a team that does not suit up a senior, was in this one all the way. The Vikings were led by the Garcia sisters, junior Savannah and freshman Meagan, and outside hitter Sierra Bennett. Bennett, a junior, led the way in the hitting department with 15 kills.

One could excuse Eaton and Valley for being a bit tired following tough final pool-play matches. Faith Christian defeated Eaton 3-0 in their final pool-play match, but the loss by the Reds only gave them a 15-minute break before they had to take on CSCS. Yet they gave the Lions a run behind the stalwart play of Gracie Howe, Casey Ball and Chelsea Cowan.

Valley had an emotional victory against league rival University in its final pool-play match, prevailing 15-25, 25-11, 25-14, 25-22. It was also an emotional tournament by the Vikings for another reason as they played without stellar junior Sarah Kawata, who had her appendix removed last Monday.

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