‘It’s sweeter’: Gorman wins 3rd straight 5A girls volleyball title — PHOTOS
It’s never easy to beat the same team four times in a season.
Bishop Gorman’s girls volleyball team experienced that when they faced Coronado for a fourth time in Saturday’s Class 5A state championship match.
Gorman, after a back-and-forth first two sets, put an exclamation point on another dominant season in the third. The Gaels, the Southern Region champion, won the final set to claim their third straight 5A state title in a 30-28, 26-24, 25-13 victory over Coronado, the South’s No. 2 seed, at Sunrise Mountain.
“It’s sweeter for sure,” Gorman coach Gregg Nunley said. “Any coach will tell you it’s tough to beat a team four times in a season and to beat the same team (by a score of) 3-0 is super tough. The first two (sets Coronado) pushed us, but we pushed back.”
Gorman (33-8) won its seventh girls volleyball state title and sixth under Nunley. The Gaels have won all of their state titles since 2016. Saturday’s win was also Nunley’s 600th as a high school coach.
“These kids are so hardworking,” said Nunley, who started coaching in 1996. “They’re so resilient, they’re so coachable. They want to work hard. They want to get better. It hasn’t been easy, but it was certainly worth it.”
Seniors Ayanna Watson and Trinity Thompson, both Pitt commits, capped off record-breaking high school careers with another strong match. Watson, an outside hitter, had 25 kills. Thompson, a setter, had 41 assists.
Watson set a new state record for kills in a high school career on Sept. 29. Thompson set the state record for all-time assists on Oct. 29. Watson finished her high school career with 2,195 kills and Thompson finished with 4,337 assists.
“It’s an indescribable feeling just because I feel like the year couldn’t have played out more perfectly,” Thompson said. “It started with (No. 3 nationally ranked) Mater Dei (California), and we beat them. Then Ayanna broke the record. Then I broke the record. We beat Coronado four times, didn’t lose a set to them. Just to win state after everything and all the hard work is really just amazing.”
Added Watson: “I wouldn’t be here without Trinity. I would not. There’s no way I would have broken the record without Trinity or Chloe (Lopez) or all the passers, so just give all the props to them.”
Gorman found itself in a battle with Coronado (26-11) in the first set. Gorman grabbed the largest lead in the set at 20-17 on a Watson kill before Coronado charged back. The Cougars had three set points before Watson scored all four of Gorman’s final points with kills.
“The energy was awesome,” Nunley said. “We were kind of calm on the bench because we’ve been in situations like this before. I turned to Trinity and I said, ‘Hey, I trust you. I’ve trusted you for four years, I trust you now.’ ”
Coronado kept the pressure on in the second set as the Cougars took a 22-18 lead late. Watson delivered again, recording four kills to help the Gaels close on an 8-2 run.
“We expected this. (Coronado’s) not going to let us just take it from them,” Watson said. “They really tested us. We just played through it really well.”
Gorman controlled the final set, getting contributions from Watson, Thompson, Charlie Wilson, Ellie Prindl and Darby Vannah to finish the sweep. The Gaels fell to the floor in a group hug after a Coronado hit went out of bounds for the championship point.
“We’re seniors, it’s just really special, especially it being a three-peat,” Thompson said. “It’s the icing on the cake. … I’m just happy I did it all with my best friend (Watson).”
Prindl had eight kills and three aces, while Boyana Pesic had eight kills and three blocks.
“When people say team effort, this was a team effort,” Nunley said. “It wasn’t just Ayanna, it wasn’t just Trinity. It was a super strong team effort and I’m super proud of all 15 kids on this team.”
Rachel Purser led Coronado with 16 kills and four blocks. Julie Beckham had 10 kills for the Cougars and Gentry Oblad added nine.
Contact Alex Wright at awright@reviewjournal.com. Follow @AlexWright1028 on X.
