AURORA | It was a bittersweet ending to play on its home floor for the seniors on the Grandview girls volleyball team Saturday afternoon.
The Wolves were sad not to have any more matches to look forward to in a gym in which they had been incredibly successful, but they do have more matches to look forward to at another venue, the Denver Coliseum.
Eighth-seeded Grandview earned its way into the Nov. 9-11 Class 5A state tournament with sweeps of No. 29 Brighton and No. 17 Dakota Ridge to join 11 other teams in the mix to win a state championship. Coach Rob Graham’s Wolves will retain the eighth seed going into state as no upsets happened to the seven seeds above them at regionals.
Grandview (20-5) opened the day with a tidy 25-11, 25-13, 25-11 win over Brighton, which turned around and fell to Dakota Ridge 25-19, 19-25, 25-18, 25-18 to set up a winner-take-all final match.
The Wolves were not to be denied, as they navigated a challenge from the Eagles (20-5) — who were led by 6-foot-3 sophomore middle hitter Whitney Dewicki — with the contributions of a variety of seniors and strong fill-in play at setter from sophomore Julia Ulitzky.
Grandview’s regular setter was out due to injury, so Graham called up Ulitzky and she took full advantage of the weapons around her in seniors Emerson Deferme, Rachel Briar, Mira Griffin and Peyton Belcher among others.
Deferme had a kill to seal a strong opening set for the Wolves, while Dakota Ridge got off to a 6-3 start to the second set before Grandview reeled it in. Once the Wolves pulled event at 8-8, they pulled away with contributions from all over.
Deferme had a kill off a block and then had another putaway to give Grandview a three-point edge in the middle of the third set and the Wolves methodically worked their way to match point, which was put away by Briar.
Afterwards, Grandview celebrated two milestone achievements by two seniors, as Deferme has amassed more than 1,000 kills for her career, while senior libero Brenna Kelly has recorded more than 1,000 digs.
Grandview was the only one of the Aurora area’s four regional qualifiers to advance, as 24th-seeded Regis Jesuit and No. 36 Eaglecrest both were eliminated in play at the Region 1 tournament hosted by top-seeded Valor Christian and 26th-seeded Cherokee Trail dropped two matches in Castle View’s Region 11 tournament.
Courtney Oakes is Aurora Sentinel Sports Editor. Reach him at sports@aurorasentinel.com. Twitter/X: @aurorasports. IG: Sentinel Prep Sports