Jose Rodriguez couldn’t wait to get his hands on the regional championship trophy.
When he finally did take it from Mountain View athletic director Ryan Walstrom, he and his Mountain View boys volleyball teammates celebrated like no team before them ever got to.
Rodriguez, a senior who has been with the team since he was a freshman, waited four years for a special moment Friday night at Mountain View. Two years after a two-win season, the Mountain Lions claimed their first regional championship and the Class 4A state tournament berth that goes with it.
They will play next weekend at Fountain-Fort Carson’s Trojan Arena.
To get there, the No. 3 seed Mountain Lions had to win twice Friday, and they survived a scare in their first match against No. 22 Vail Christian. Mountain View won the first set 25-13 but lost the next two by the same set scores, 25-23. The Mountain Lions regrouped and won the fourth set 25-17, and then the fifth 15-11.
With the state berth on the line, they faced No. 14 DSST: College View and won in a more convincing fashion, 25-16, 25-23, 25-21.
“Amazing,” Rodriguez said. “Watching this program grow, it’s the best thing I could ask for in life, honestly. It’s just crazy. It feels so surreal.”
The win was just another step in the progression of the program that went from winning seven matches in its first four years combined, to winning 14 and qualifying for its first regional last year, and then winning conference and regional titles this season.
Mountain View won 13 straight matches to begin this season and ended the regular season with three in a row, including one against Stargate School that avenged an earlier loss to the Eagles.
In the final match of the regional against DSST: College View, the Mountain Lions dominated the first set, never trailing and winning 25-16. The second set was closer and was tied at 23 when Mountain View was able to get the last two points to close it out.
Mountain View jumped out to a quick 5-0 lead in the third set, but the Wolves were able to battle back. The set was close for a while until the Mountain Lions were able to pull away late.
Point by point, the anticipation grew, especially for head coach Sonja deBord.
“Every point is curdling in your stomach,” deBord said. “Every point that you score, every point that they score is just, it’s just turning in your stomach. You trust them. You just don’t know at that point because it’s so important.”
DeBord was hired three years ago to try to turn the program in a positive direction. After only winning two matches in her first season, she has led Mountain View to 21 this year.
The 20th win didn’t come easy, however. The Mountain Lions were down two sets to one against Vail Christian. Rodriguez said he wasn’t sure the team was going to win.
However, they rallied and won the fourth set to force a fifth and won it too.
“We came out that first set and I think that first set was pretty easy,” deBord said. “We have a tendency when it’s easy to just let down. And it takes them a while to regroup. It was a mental challenge for sure. But the growth that they make in those matches is more growth than they make in the easy ones.”
DSST: College View was actually upset by Vail Christian in the middle match of the regional, so had the Mountain Lions lost all three teams would have been 1-1 and a tiebreaker would have been needed.
Mountain View came out and established a tone early and rode it all the way to the only sweep of the regional.
Up 24-20, the Mountain Lions thought they had scored the winning point and began to celebrate only for a referee to call that a ball was touched by Mountain View before going out of bounds and the point went to the Wolves.
On the very next serve, the Mountain Lions finished it off.
“It feels amazing,” senior Jonah Stewart said. “One of the top teams in the state, it feels good.”
The 4A state tournament runs Thursday through Saturday in Fountain.
