MESA — The May 17, 3A boys volleyball final was the ultimate coronation for head coach Chuck Hunter and the Northwest Christian program.

After three state-final losses since 2021, the fourth time was the charm, as the Crusaders defeated top-seeded ALA West Foothills, 3-2, at Skyline High School.

“We’ve experienced the last two championship losses and to finally win this one. Well, it’s amazing, last year we lost the first two sets, won the next two, then lost set five, 15-13, so to get this is special,” Hunter said.

The beginning of the final began similarly to the first matchup between the Crusaders and Guardians on May 1. That was a 3-2 victory for ALA West Foothills that secured the top 3A overall seed.

“When we were there, we ran a 6-2 offense,” Hunter said. “Our server that we finished with got injured a quarter into the season, so we had to go to our other setter, and he did a great job, so we stuck with the 6-2 from then until today.”

Initially, the front line duo of Garrett Verver and Devon Helmer made their impact on the match, as multiple blocks at the net allowed the Crusaders to jump out to an 11-7 lead and force a Guardians timeout. Northwest hung on for a 26-24 first-set victory.

The second and third sets also played out similarly to the first matchup. Leading the way for the Guardians was senior Brett Sauls and Zachary Saraiva.

In the second set, where the Guardians pulled away with a 25-21 victory, that duo combined for five of ALA West Foothills’ seven kills.

Set three was where the top-seeded Guardians began to put their foot on the gas. Once again, Sauls took advantage of the positioning of the Crusaders and the 6-2 line as he and teammates Wyatt Hofmann and Cameron Lauer would place volleys over the net into soft spots of the Northwest Christian defense or would forcefully angle towards the back corner of the zone where a player couldn’t get to it.

Falling into a 2-1 deficit, the Crusaders were forced to make changes.

“We adjusted to a lineup that we started with earlier in the year and we went back to the 5-1, and the guys were able to push through and do their job, we went to our other setter, and I’m really proud of him, even that setter who didn’t set, came in and played back row,” Hunter said.

That adjustment allowed the 3A player of the year, Helmer, to take over the match.

Set four, just like the early-May matchup, was a pendulum swing as the Guardians started off on fire, jumping out to a 4-0 lead before a series of errors quickly tied the set at 6-6.

From there, Helmer rattled off five consecutive kills as he and teammate Sam Caldwell combined for 14 out of their 45 kills on the day in a dominating fourth set.

That forced a championship-deciding fifth set.

“Devon, in that first game, got blocked a couple of times, and last year, he had a hard time getting blocked. 
And so, for him to bounce back out of that and stay strong and keep swinging was tremendous courage for him, he just kept balling out, and again, I’m so proud of him,” Hunter said.

During the three-minute timeout between the fourth and fifth sets, Hunter had to make a schematic decision to determine what would fit best for the team this time around.

“When we played them earlier in the year and when we went to game five, we did not do well. 
Today, we stayed adjusted to a lineup that we started with earlier in the year and earlier in the game we stayed in the 5-1 and it paid off,” Hunter said.

The fifth set started off with a bang for the Crusaders with Caldwell’s four consecutive aces. The Guardians committed back-to-back errors, called a timeout, and Northwest Christian was up 7-0 after a thunderous Helmer spike that ended a long rally.

Both teams then traded errors and the Crusaders never gave up their lead, with Trace Martin serving a match-ending ace to send a championship to northwest Phoenix.

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