Faith Lutheran advances to 5A volleyball tournament next week, faces Gorman in region final on Saturday

Faith Lutheran’s girls volleyball team entered Wednesdays’s match with a chance to end a state tournament drought.

The Crusaders wasted little time taking control.

Faith Lutheran jumped out to a 7-2 lead in the first set and rolled to a 25-16, 25-14, 25-15 win over Centennial in the Class 5A Southern Region semifinals at Legacy. The victory propelled the Crusaders into the region championship on Saturday, and more importantly, secured a berth in next week’s Class 5A state tournament.

“That’s kind of been our thing all season is that we want to start every set, every match fast and strong, because we feel that it sets the tempo for us,” Faith Lutheran coach Amy Fisher said. “But it also sends a message to the other team that you’ve got to go if you’re going to keep up.”

Faith Lutheran (30-7) plays Bishop Gorman (31-6) for the region title at noon on Saturday at Legacy. The Gaels advanced with a 25-17, 25-16, 23-25, 25-16 win over Coronado in the other semifinal. Both finalists advance to state on Nov. 5-6 at UNR.

Centennial (18-17) rarely was able to keep up with Faith Lutheran on Thursday. The Crusaders had beaten the Bulldogs twice during the regular season, but the third time wasn’t the charm for Centennial, as Faith Lutheran was in control for much of the match.

“Centennial’s a very good team, and they’re not going to quit,” Fisher said. “They had a great win against Foothill, and when you get a great win like that you believe. I was worried about this match, because it’s our third time playing them, but also knowing when you come off a big win, a big upset, you’ve got the momentum happening.”

Any momentum Centennial got was quickly squashed by 6-foot-4-inch sophomore outside hitter Abby Bunyan, who finished with a match-high 21 kills for Faith Lutheran.

Bunyan did most of her work from the traditional outside hitter spot, but the Crusaders also set Bunyan in the middle and even on the opposite side.

Chloe Garcia added nine kills, and Tori Castro had eight kills for Faith Lutheran.

“I think that we’re unique. We have six great hitters, and I think it’s hard to defend,” Fisher said. “So when one of them’s off, the other five are going to be on.”

It is Faith Lutheran’s first trip to state since the Class 4A tournament in 2018.

“It’s a group of young women that are really good friends and put in a lot of hours here at Faith, but also at club, and just an awesome group,” Fisher said. “They want to get there and do this. They want to be the ones, and I’m super excited for them. They’ve just worked their tail off to do this.”

Olivia Kiel had 25 assists, and Ellee Ford had five aces for the Crusaders.

I’yanna Riley and Anne Bernard each had six kills for Centennial.

The three-time defending state champion Gaels had a little more trouble against a familiar postseason opponent. Gorman has faced the Cougars in the past three state title matches, and rebounded after losing the third set to earn another berth at state.

“I’m really proud of the fact that after playing Coronado four years, Coronado’s only taken two sets off of us in four years,” Gorman coach Gregg Nunley said. “So that says a lot. Our kids get hyped up to play this match.”

Aliana Breitling had 14 kills to lead the Gaels, who also got major contributions from middle blockers Ashiedu Nwuli and Caira Tasi.

Nwuli had 13 kills and two blocks, and Tasi had two kills and five blocks.

“With Nevada volleyball, the middles are a game changer,” Nunley said. “There’s a lot of teams that have a good player and they put them on the outside. Outside vs. outside volleyball, first of all, it’s not very fun to play, and secondly if you can train middles and get middles into the match, they can be a gamer changer.”

Zarah Ghadban added nine kills, and Boyana Pesic had three kills, 35 assists and three aces for the Gaels.

“We’ve been really focused on next ball,” Nunley said of his team’s response to dropping the third set. “So when good things happen, we’re focused on the next ball. When bad things happen, we’re focused on the next ball.”

Jamie Beckham paced Coronado with 12 kills. Atley Huebner had five kills and four blocks, and Kendally Dudzinski had five kills, three blocks and an ace for the Cougars (20-11).