Lady Wildcats take Runner-Up title in 16th consecutive appearance

The Fleming Lady Wildcat volleyball squad has grown up seeing and admiring excellence on their volleyball court. This year's team continued that tradition of excellence, a tradition that started before their elementary years, with a 16th consecutive State volleyball tournament appearance.

First year Lady Wildcat Head Coach Megan Chintala took the reins of the dynasty in the senior season of Sam Pope, Zoey Vandenbark and Whitney Chintala, her younger sister. The trio of this year's seniors grew up watching their coach help bring home a pair of gold balls during her high school years with State tournament showings in all four of years of her high school volleyball career.

Under the direction of a mentor, the Lady Wildcat seniors led their team to a 20-5 regular season. They held a top-five spot in rankings all year and won the Region B tournament on their way to the 2021 1A State Tournament.

Fleming returned to the Broadmoor World Arena in Colorado Springs last week after having played at the same venue several months ago in the 2020 1A State Tournament when they fell to the Merino Lady Rams in the Championship in five sets. The two teams would meet again in this season's Championship match.

Entering as the number-two seed, the Lady Wildcats earned a round one bye that automatically advanced them to evening play on the opening day of the Tournament. Just three matches stood between the Lady Wildcats and the Championship.

The first of those three matches came against the 10th ranked Flatirons Academy Lady Bison of Westminster. The local ladies rolled past that match taking a huge set one victory, 25-14, before closing the sweep with wins in the following two sets, 25-22 and 25-21.

The opening win put Fleming on the court with the neighboring Haxtun Lady Bulldogs. The third-ranked Lady Bulldogs advanced out of their opening match with a 3-2 win over the sixth seeded Stratton Lady Eagles.

The Lady Wildcats sailed to a smooth set one victory over Haxtun, 25-9, before dropping set two, 25-20. They regained their composure and went on to take the match with 25-20 and 25-23 wins in sets three and four.

The 3-1 match win over Haxtun allowed the Lady Wildcats to advance into the Final Four with an unscathed State Tournament record. The Merino Lady Rams also found the Final Four from the winners' side of the bracket. Haxtun and Briggsdale would also make the Final Four after fighting their way back out of the elimination side of the bracket. The number-one ranked Briggsdale Lady Falcons fell to Merino in their second match of the event to fall into the elimination side.

Final Four pairings put Merino up against Haxtun and Fleming against Briggsdale. All four teams became familiar in the regular season. Fleming split at 1-1 in regular season action against Briggsdale, but took the match that counted on Saturday afternoon at Colorado Springs.

A hard-fought first set ended with the Lady Falcons on top with extras, 26-24. The Lady Wildcats bounced back to take a 10-point win in set two, 25-15. Briggsdale refused to go down easy and won set three with extra points again, this time 28-26. Set four was all Fleming again as they took another win by a large margin, 25-17, to head into set number five.

The Lady Wildcats maintained their composure and took down the top-ranked 1A team with a 15-12 fifth set victory for the match win. The win put the Lady Falcons out of the running and sealed a spot in the Championship for the Lady Wildcats.

With Haxtun falling to Merino in Final Four play, the Lady Rams advanced to the big show for a repeat of last May's Championship match. Fleming sought redemption and the gold ball; Merino sought redemption from the 3-1 loss they suffered to Fleming in the regular season a couple weeks prior.

The two teams played a tight first set with the Lady Rams hitting the 25-point mark first. Fleming trailed by just four at 21 points in the opening set.

Set two went to Merino by a much larger spread, 25-9, but the Lady Wildcats would come back out to take set three, 25-18.

The third set would be the only set Merino would drop in the match. They went on to take the match victory with a set-four win, 25-18.

Individual stats for the Lady Wildcats were not available as of press time. In addition to winning the Runner-Up title, the Lady Wildcats finished the year with a 23-6 overall record and a 6-1 league record.

Watch future editions of the Herald for the announcement of this year's All-Conference honorees.