Athletic ability and size were clearly an advantage for ALA-West Foothills.

The power and physicality were evident from the warmup, and it carried through into the first set of Saturday’s 3A state championship game.

It was energy and kills galore.

Only problem was Northwest Christian was on the other side of the net.

The Crusaders were neither big nor athletic, but it mattered not. Northwest Christian had history, the team mentality and a mental edge and it led to the Crusaders defending the title with a 21-25, 25-18, 25-18, 25-15 victory.

“We’re not as big and we’re not as physical as ALA,” Northwest Christian coach Chuck Hunter said. “We played good team volleyball, played scrappy defense and we just took advantages of opportunities when they were there.”

The fourth set was a microcosm of the match as ALA West Foothills (29-6) took the early lead, but once MVP Gavin Helmer started the offense into a rhythm and the defensive blocks began thwarting the Guardians offense, it was clear the Crusaders (23-3) were going to end the day with the state championship trophy.

“Mentally we had to calm down a little bit. We came out super amped,” Helmer said. “Second set we played as a team, made sure we were all on the same page and those last three sets our blocking was so good. They completely shut them down and gave them no momentum.

“It’s hard to win a game when you can’t put the ball down. We’ve been here before and I think it comes down to how close we are as a team. When there is a mistake we come together as a group, and we make sure we don’t get flustered. We don’t fall apart and push through the adversity.”

The struggle for ALA West Foothills was a bit of mental block when it comes to facing Northwest Christian. The Guardians haven’t lost a match, barely a set, against any other opponent on the regular season schedule the last two campaigns. They even won the regular season match 3 -1 over Northwest Christians just a month ago.

The title match for the second year in a row proved to be too much for ALA West Foothills against Northwest Christian.

“They started getting nervous, played safe and making errors,” ALA Foothills coach Kendra Ritter said. “You can’t play that way. It was all our errors. You could see it in their body language.”

Despite the efforts of Lincoln Holdaway, Zachary Saraiva, Linkin Hall and others, the Guardians head back to the west side feeling like it should have been a different result.

“We needed to them focus on each other and remember why we are such a strong team,” she said. “We don’t each other down. They try to play through it, but it is hard when (Northwest Christian) is the only team that we play that’s competitive with us. We beat them every year in region, but we just can’t finish it.”

It is one of the reasons why Northwest Christian that will be putting up the banner in the gym.

“State is a totally different beast,” Hunter said. “It’s a mental challenge. It’s a lot of stress and the experience of being here the last four years has helped us out. The guys executed and we did somethings we need to do in the big moments.”

The Crusaders received contributions throughout as the emotions of Lincoln Hubbard keeping the team up, while Dawson Lusher, Gavin Lafon and Sammy Caldwell controlled the net defensively and brought the power on offense and libero Brayden Lee received serves and hit the floor to keep balls alive to win the last three sets.

Hunter pointed specially to the growth of the Lusher and Lee as they moved into more prominent roles as key to the season.

“We have guys that grinded last year and through year that hard really hard and work they improved, not only physical but mental. They might be seniors, but this is the first year they’ve had to carry that.

“It’s been fun to watch them grow and mature through that process.”

It’s the second straight title after finishing as runner the previous two years. It’s taken some time to develop into the two-time champs and Hunter felt part of it was his demeanor as a coach.

There are times when his heart monitor on his watch reached the 120s in some matches, especially in the 2023 and 2024 finals.

It was a cool 90 to start the match and he said it never really spiked Saturday because he knew Crusaders were going to find a way once again.

“The first two years we were favored to win, and I carried a lot of that and stress with that,” he said. “We’re not favored to win (this year) and shouldn’t be here. And yet we find a way to do it. I think it is that mental toughness our guys bring.

“I’m a small piece. I get to help navigate the games, but those guys are the ones who get it done. I am super proud of them.”

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