Lady Wildcats meet Lady Rams for third consecutive title match

Fleming's Lady Wildcat volleyball squad appeared in their 17th consecutive 1A State Tournament last week. And for the third consecutive year, brought home the 1A Runner-Up trophy.

This year's seniors - Lexi Schaefer, Kally Kirkwood, Maddy Harms, Maddy Zink and Laney Schliesser - sought to repeat the success of their freshman season as they entered the Denver Coliseum among the best in the State last week. Their debut season was the last the time the Lady Wildcats brought home the 1A title.

Fleming entered this year's State showing in the number four slot which afforded them an opening round bye. They took the court for their first match against Stratton on Thursday, Nov. 10. The Lady Eagles, who entered at number 12 in the 12-team bracket held a 17-9 overall record when they entered State.

The local ladies in green looked seasoned under the pressure of the bright lights and cruised to a sweep over Stratton to open tournament play. Stratton came within five points in the opening set, 25-20, but lost the match with losses in sets two and three, 25-13 and 25-19.

The win over Stratton put Fleming in a match with the Merino Lady Rams. Merino, the defending 1A State Champs, have held the top spot in standings all season and entered the tournament bracket in the same fashion.

Fleming and Merino met up twice in the regular season. Merino emerged victorious on both of those occasions, three sets to one, handing the Lady Wildcats two of their five losses prior to State.

Fleming came out on top of their game in the two team's most recent showdown. They battled and took the first two sets 25-20 and 25-21. But Merino wasn't going down without a fight. The Lady Rams answered back taking sets three and four 25-15 and 25-17 to send the match in set number five.

With the right to advance to semifinals hanging in the balance, Fleming came out solid and sent Merino to the elimination bracket with a 15-10 fifth set win. The loss marked the fourth of the season for the Merino Lady Rams and the only loss to a 1A team since a late-October loss to Fleming in the 2021 season.

With Merino sent to eliminations, the Lady Wildcats prepared to take on Simla in the semifinal contest on Saturday afternoon. Simla, the seventh ranked team, defeated Otis in round one and upset second ranked Kit Carson on Thursday. They advanced to semifinals with another upset over McClave on Friday.

The match opened with a close 25-21 first set before Fleming found their groove and polished Simla off with 25-19 and 25-14 wins.

For the final match of the year and their shot to regain the title, Fleming would once again meet up with the Merino Lady Rams. Merino found their way to the Championship after battling back out of the elimination bracket with sweeps over Briggsdale and McClave.

The Lady Rams came out to dominate from the opening set and swept the Championship match 25-17, 25-21 and 25-19 handing Fleming their third consecutive Runner-Up trophy.

Fleming finished the season at 23-6 overall. They lose several key players to graduation this year who will hand over leadership reins to juniors Madi Serrato, Savannah Taylor and Kylie Bretz.