Joe Zemba
La Junta Tribune-Democrat
Cardinals win program’s first volleyball state championship
Two season’s ago, McClave volleyball head coach Mellissa Steibrunn’s message to her team following a final-four exit at the state championships was clear; “Good enough is not good enough.”
That season, the Cardinals entered the state tournament ranked third in the state and hadn’t lost a single game all season. In the final-four match, they were eliminated in straight sets by eventual champions, Merino, who, at that time, went on to win their third consecutive championship.
“There’s an intimidation factor when you’re playing a team that is used to being in that moment,” reflected Steinbrunn. “We reflected afterwards and agreed that we’re not quite sure how to win in a game like that. It was a learning experience. We came together, talked, and we’re going to be back there next year and we’re going to beat them.”
That moment, however, came and went last season without coming to fruition. Meanwhile, Merino went on to establish themselves as a modern-day dynasty by winning their fourth consecutive championship.
On Saturday evening inside the walls of the Denver Coliseum, that same Merino team entered the state championship match as the overall top seed, having lost just one game all season, to a 3A opponent, and looking to make it five in a row. On the opposite side of the net was a heavy underdog, McClave, who had prepared for their opportunity at the champions for the past three seasons.
The day prior, Merino defeated McClave in straight sets, 25-18, 25-19, 28-26.
But when the smoke finally cleared from a ruckus arena, a new champion held the golden trophy for the first time since 2019 as the Cardinals upended the Rams, 25-22, 25-20, 19-25, 25-22, to win the program’s first-ever state championship.
“It’s amazing,” said Steinbrunn. “Merino truly is a dynasty. They are a phenomenal team, a great program, and they play great defense. Finding holes on their side of the floor isn’t easy. But it speaks a lot for the grit and determination that our girls have. They were prepared. You don’t just show up and win games. All of those games happened in practice and in the gym. That’s what led them there. I was excited for them.”
The Cardinals found the floor on Merino’s side of the floor often by way of 52 kills, 45 of them coming from the trio of juniors Aubrielle Gomez and Ashlynn Steinbrunn, and sophomore Avery Hemphill, all of whom recorded 15 kills in the match.
Senior Emily Melgoza recorded six kills from the middle.
McClave began their championship trek, one that would consist of an impressive six game run, Thursday against Weldon Valley, the only team they met in the tournament that they had previously beaten.
The Cardinals won the match 3-0, 25-16, 25-22, 25-21.
Hemphill led the way with 10 kills in the match, followed by Gomez’ 8.
In the championship quarterfinal round, the Cardinals met fourth seeded Otis, whom they had previously been swept by during the season, but this time turned the table on the Bulldogs with a sweep of their own, 25-15, 25-18, 25-22.
It was in the third round, where MHS met Merino, that they lost their first match of the tournament, falling in straight sets.
“Against merino, I was thankful, in a way, that we lost that game,” said Steinbrunn. “We needed to lose. I told the girls, ‘your job is not necessarily to win, but to make them uncomfortable; to give them enough doubt to know they have to watch out for you.’ Their job was to stay in it and make those sets close. The bracket allows for us to come back and that’s what they did; because even though it can be intimidating, we have nothing to lose. Merino had all the pressure on them to maintain their reputation, not us.”
In the consolation round, McClave checked another box on their redemption tour, by defeating Stratton, whom they lost to, 3-1, in August, in straight sets, 25-20, 25-15, 25-15.
Hemphill hammered down 15 kills to lead all hitters and Gomez added 13.
In the semi-final round, MHS met Fleming, the tournament’s third overall seed and a team they hadn’t beaten in each of the previous two trips to the big show.
In what easily turned in to the match of the night, MHS erased an 0-2 deficit to claim a 3-2 victory over the Panthers to earn their first championship bid in almost two decades.
Hemphill led the Cardinals with 16 kills in the game, followed by Gomez with 13, Steinbrunn with seven, and Melgoza with six.
“Against Fleming, being down two sets, we had to take that moment to have a gut check,” said Steinbrunn. “We had to ask ourselves, ‘What kind of team do we want to be?’ Do we want to continue playing scared? Not getting in position? Or, do we want to be prepared and show that we can do it? The girls decided they weren’t ready to let Fleming have the game. Our motto all season long has been ‘earned, never given.’ We reminded them of that. Fleming wanted it just as much they do. Our team turned it on, forced Fleming to crumble, and shook them up.”
“A lot of the teams that were there expected to see us go two and out”, said Steinbrunn. “That’s because we had played those teams before and lost. But we knew what team we have. We knew if we put it all out there, we would come away with something special. There is two kinds of pain, the moment or the regret. The girls picked the right one.”
“The common theme of the weekend was redemption,” added Steinbrunn. “It’s not something we planned, but we wanted a hard schedule and we wanted to be competitive rather than be beaten because we didn’t have a hard enough schedule. A perfect record entering the state tournament means nothing and it just so happened that teams that beat us were the teams we saw at state. When we saw how the bracket laid out, we jokingly referred to it as ‘Revenge Tour 2024’.”
“We wanted to see all those teams that beat us before because we wanted them to see that the team they’re seeing today is not the team they saw before. We went in with the mentality that ‘you’re not gonna beat us again’,” she said. “That gave us fire to make it happen.”
Steinbrunn and her daughter Ashlynn, who, notably, recorded 15 kill sin the finale to upend Merino, is just one of the family connections Steibrunn made the title run more special than one might already expect.
“There are a lot of family and a lot of ties to the McClave volleyball tradition that supported this program either in that arena or at home,” said Steinbrunn, who herself is a McClave High School volleyball alum. “I played with Avery’s mother and there are other mamas of players on this team that know how hard this is to do and, for whatever reason, never got it done. The women of this community have supported these girls so phenomenally. All of these girls have had aunts, moms, cousins, and others who played on great teams. They had so many Lady Cardinals cheering for them. This is a major monumental page being turned for McClave.”
“What this community, as a whole, has done for this program can only be said of small towns,” said Steinbrunn. “They support through fundraisers and the fire department gave us an escort in to town when we got home. McClave is special place.”
As for what’s next, Steinbrunn remained optimistic, preferring to enjoy the moment at hand.
“This team made the sacrifices to get where they are and found ways to score,” she said. “Next year, we start over just like everyone else. Nothing is in the bag. We will work hard like we always have and, hopefully, we do that little bit more to come out on top.”
