Faith Lutheran downs Bishop Gorman to win 5A volleyball region title — PHOTOS

Faith Lutheran’s girls volleyball season ended in last year’s Class 5A Southern Region semifinals with a loss to Bishop Gorman at Legacy High School, denying the Crusaders a spot in the state tournament.

Both teams had clinched their spots at state when they met again at Legacy in Saturday’s region final, but Faith Lutheran got its revenge and snapped Gorman’s nearly four-year run of dominance against Nevada schools.

Faith Lutheran, the Mountain League champion, prevailed in four sets 25-13, 26-24, 19-25, 25-20 over the Desert League champion Gaels to win the 5A Southern Region title.

The Crusaders’ win was the first by a Nevada school over Gorman since the Gaels lost to Reno High in the 5A state semifinals on Nov. 11, 2022.

Both Faith Lutheran (31-7) and Gorman (31-7) advance to the 5A state tournament, which begins Thursday at UNR’s Virginia Street Gym. Faith Lutheran, the South’s No. 1 seed, will play Carson, the North’s No. 2 seed, at 7 p.m. Gorman, the South’s No. 2 seed, will play Northern champion Bishop Manogue at 5:20 p.m.

“It’s awesome,” Faith Lutheran coach Amy Fisher said. Her team is making its first appearance in the state tournament since 2018. “It’s something that we’ve been striving for quite a while since we’ve been in the 5A, and we seem to always be in the mix and we always seem to meet Gorman at the wrong time. So this year, we met them in the region final, so that’s what made it even more exciting.”

Faith Lutheran sophomore outside hitter Abby Bunyan had a team-high 23 kills on a .450 hitting percentage and added 12 digs. The 6-foot-4 Bunyan gave Gorman problems the first two sets. Faith Lutheran dominated the first set to set the tone for Saturday after the Gaels had swept Faith Lutheran 3-0 in the teams’ regular season meeting.

“We’ve been working in practice, and we had rough start with them earlier in the season,” Bunyan said. “But we came back and we worked hard and I’m proud of us. It was really big (to win the first set) especially against a big team like (Gorman) and just us having that energy helped us win.”

It was an off first set for Gorman, as several errors put the Gaels in a hole they couldn’t dig out of. The Gaels pushed in a back-and-forth second set, but a Bunyan kill and an Ellee Ford ace gave the Crusaders the second set.

“We started fast, we passed relatively well and our setters did a really good job of distributing the ball to different hitters at different times,” Fisher said. “That’s what makes us good is we have so many kids that can put the ball away at any time.”

Gorman answered, winning the third set behind several key kills from Ashiedu Nwuli to stay alive. Bunyan said the focus during the break before the fourth set was to limit errors after she said the team felt it was putting too much pressure on itself during the third set.

Faith Lutheran buckled down and prevailed in the fourth set. Bunyan recorded several key kills as the Crusaders took a 16-7 lead midway through the set and fended off a late charge from Gorman.

“It’s nice to have a 6-4 kid on your team that plays really well and to know you have a go-to player,” Fisher said. “If she’s off, what’s nice is we have all these other kids that can pick up the slack until she gets back on her game.”

Ford recorded 25 digs to surpass 1,000 career digs at Faith Lutheran. Olivia Kiel recorded 25 assists for Faith Lutheran to pass the 1,000-career assist mark.

Aliana Breitling had 16 kills for Gorman, and Nwuli added 13 kills for the Gaels.

Contact Alex Wright at [email protected]. Follow @AlexWright1028 on X.