Two schools and zero volleyball state titles in three combined finals appearances. One was going back to campus with new hardware. And in the AIA 4A volleyball state championship match, it was Estrella Foothills earning the gold trophy for the first time.

The Wolves’ 25-20, 25-18, 22-25, 25-22 victory means the Titans will have to wait one more season.

“Amazing,” an elated coach Jennifer Gonzales said. “We’ve been working toward this for four years with this group of seniors. They did the work and they got the prize. We have a special group of seniors. If we were going to win it, this would be the year. They bought into it and they did the work. They didn’t want any days off.”

The match started off with strong play at the net on both sides. Few errors and long rallies led to neither team getting more than a one-point lead until Estrella Foothills went up 13-10. After some back and forth, the Wolves got up even bigger at 18-13 following three straight Titans errors.

Arcadia responded with junior Zoe Leonard tallying a pair of kills and Estrella Foothills committing three unforced errors to give the Titans a 20-19. However, it was all Wolves from there, closing the set out on a 6-0 run. Senior Sage Chittester started the rally with a kill and then served two aces as part of that run.

Arcadia got up quickly 3-0 in the second set, but Estrella Foothills reclaimed the lead at 10-9 and never let up. Wolves were once again strong at the net led by senior Lala Florance-Littles’ five points in the frame. As a team, EFHS hit .297 and outkilled the other side 15-10.

“As a team we rely on each other a lot and our energy. We have really high energy. We all put a little bit more into that second set,” said senior hitter Angelee Bawek.

It was close once again to start the third set and Arcadia looked to be the more consistent team on offense. An even attack across the front row had the Titans up 16-14. As always, the Wolves came right back led by Bawek and Estrella Foothills was again on top 20-17.

Despite all their kills, the Wolves committed too many hitting errors and net violations. The Titans only had two kills and an ace the rest of the way, but it was the five errors at the end that was costly in the third game loss.

“We had to be the ones to want it more and dig deeper,” added Florance-Littles. “Get to the end. We can’t think about what the other team is doing. We were a team as a whole until the end.”

The start of fourth set was a repeat of the previous three. Arcadia went up 5-2 and had the momentum. But Estrella Foothills forged a 4-0 run to garner its first lead. That play continued with a 5-0 run a little later for a 13-10 advantage. Arcadia relied on its front row attack to keep it close, led by junior Taylor Soule who had four kills and a pair of blocks in the set. Now the Titans were back up 19-18.

Never out, Estrella Foothills countered with back-to-back kills from junior Aubrey Goodere for a lead it would never relinquish. After the final point was hammered home, it was an immediate dogpile at the net. For some of the 11 seniors that started this run with a state runner-up finish as freshmen in 2019, it was a culmination of a lot of hard work.

“This is the best thing I could have hoped for,” Bawek said. “There were nine of us on the JV team together as freshmen. Sophomore year seven of us moved up. Now there’s 11 of us. We’ve been able to build so much chemistry on and off the court. We just all love each other.”

Seniors did lead the way for Estrella Foothills. Florance-Littles, Bawek, Chittester, Raegan Moran, and Alyssa Gonzales combined for 40 of team’s 60 kills. Florance-Littles had a team-high 13 kills, with Goodere, Chittester and Bawek all with 12. The class of ’23 also gathered 56 of 71 digs and 8-of-9 services aces.

“It’s always a part of the gameplan because we don’t want to be a one-man show,” said Gonzales. “We have eight players that can put the ball away. They never get rattled. It sometimes worries me because that can bite you in the butt when you let another team get a four- or five-point lead. But we really worked on our side out game. They’ve always been very focused. Nothing was going to get in their way.”

Arcadia senior hitter Ryan Sheedy had a match-high 14 kills and 21 digs. Soule added nine kills. Leonard started the first set red-hot with four kills on 10 errorless attempts, but was held to five kills the rest of the way with four errors.

The Titans looked to prove their worth after defeating top-ranked Salpointe Catholic in the semis. The Lancers came into that undefeated in power-ranked matches and had won three state titles from 2016-20.

“Just being out here and working for this moment, that was the drive and power we had in the match. Our coach said at the beginning of the season that every game, every match, every practice we set ourselves up for state,” Florance-Littles exclaimed.