DENVER – The Classical Academy’s potential coronation will have to wait at least another season.

After the Titans battled from the elimination bracket to the semifinals Saturday, TCA, 3A’s No. 7 seed lost in five sets 22-25, 15-25, 25-17, 25-12, 15-12, to No. 1 Alamosa at Denver Coliseum.

The Titans nearly advanced to their first 3A state girls volleyball tournament since 2007 when they finished as runners-up.

“I’m extremely proud of our team and they fought for every point,” TCA coach Layne Whitmer said. “Getting to the semifinals was a great testament of the hard work we went through. It didn’t end the way we would have liked, but at the end of the day, volleyball is a game and we’re developing young women.

“… Sometimes it doesn’t end in a way you love, but we’re still proud of these girls.”

The Classical Academy (26-4) won its third-round elimination bracket match in straight sets, 25-20, 25-20, 25-22, against No. 8 Sterling and parlayed that momentum to their tilt with the Mean Moose.

TCA built a 2-0 lead, but Alamosa thwarted the Titans’ efforts and reverse-swept The Classical Academy to advance to the 3A title round.

“Life is hard and so is volleyball,” Whitmer said. “Sometimes it goes in your favor and sometimes it doesn’t. … We had one stop left, and we were just shy of our goal. But they committed and I let them know I was proud that we got to the point that we got.”

In 2024, the Titans fell 3 points shy of clinching a state berth without their prime setter, Avery Jaeger, who had a rotator cuff injury. With TCA’s full lineup, the Titans had their highest win total since 2007 when they finished as runners-up and went 25-7.

“Our senior class was amazing this year, and we had fantastic leadership,” Witmer said. “The heart and passion of these players is the kind of team you want to coach.”

Village’s reign ends

The Mountaineers’ second-ever season wrapped with a loss in the third-round elimination bracket Saturday morning.

Village lost 25-15, 25-23, 19-25, 25-16 to No. 2 Resurrection Christian, and the No. 12-seeded Mountaineers concluded the year 20-9.

The Mountaineers finished the tournament with a 2-2 record and lost two in a row for the first time since August, when they started 1-5.

Following their 1-5 start to the season, the Mountaineers compiled a 19-4 record in their final 23 matches and lost just 16 sets in that span.   

Rampart, Pine Creek bow out

Pine Creek had a shot to redeem its loss to No. 2 Valor Christian from the 2024 semifinals, but Valor’s Eagles upended Pine Creek’s in four sets 25-20, 21-25, 25-18, 25-20 in the elimination bracket.

Pine Creek, 5A’s No. 8 seed, lost eight seniors from that 26-5 squad, but bounced back for a 22-8 year this season. The Eagles finished the tournament 3-2.

For the Rams, the No. 5 seed, they lost 25-13, 26-24, 25-16 to No. 8 Chaparral in the third round of the elimination bracket.

Rampart missed the 2024 tournament with a 15-10 record. This year’s Rams ended the year 25-4, and the 10-win turnaround was their best since 2018 to 2019 when Rampart went from 17-8 to 26-4.

The Rams followed with a 13-1 season in 2020 and won the school’s first and only girls volleyball championship.

No area schools in title round for first time since 2022

With Lewis-Palmer (4A) and TCA’s (3A) losses in their respective semifinals, the Pikes Peak region sent no teams to the state title match. It’s the first year without an area champion in three years as Village (3A, 2024) and Palmer Ridge (4A, 2023) won each of the past two years.