Defending 3A volleyball champion Valley Christian saw its repeat hopes dashed Friday night by a school not unfamiliar with championship hardware.

#3 seed Northwest Christian controlled its semifinal match with #2 Valley Christian with a decisive sweep. Scores were 25-18, 26-24, 25-11. NWC won three straight titles 2018, 2019, 2020. NWC tries to reclaim the title on Saturday facing #1 seed Snowflake in a 1 p.m. match at Veterans Memorial Coliseum. Snowflake earned its title-match berth by outlasting #4 Thatcher in five sets. Scores were 25-23, 25-21, 24-26, 21-25, 15-9. 

NWC gained control of its match nearly from the start. The Crusaders largest deficit was 13-10 in the first set. They caught fire outscoring VC 15-5 to the finish with sophomore middle Amanda Hansen and junior outside Vivianna Samaniego supplying the bulk of the attack in that stretch.

The second set seemed headed for a blowout with NWC bolting to an 8-1 lead. Valley Christian pecked away and tied the set for the first and only time at 24-all. A VC attack error followed by an ace by Abigail Araujo put the Crusaders up two sets.

NWC made short work of the third set after the teams were knotted at 6. The Crusaders forced a timeout with a 13-8 lead and next came another run inducing VC's final timeout with the Trojans down 17-8. NWC wasn't phased securing an ace Samaniego and kill from Tatum Naber immediately after the second stoppage in play.

Kill leaders were tightly bunched for NWC. Three players notched seven kills each - Samaniego, Hansen and Jessica Jacoby. Cadence Roberts added six kills. Korah Nordin paced Valley Christian with 12 kills and Kate Phillips chipped in with six.

Snowflake leader juniors Livi Schneider and Addy Fisher paced the Lobos attack with 19 kills and 12 kills, respectively. In the decisive fifth set Fisher had four kills and Schneider three. The first four sets saw the team that won rally to prevail. Snowflake trailed 16-10 in the first set and 11-6 in the second. Thatcher overcame a six-point deficit in the third and was behind by three in the fourth. Snowflake never trailed in the final set.

Thatcher was led by junior outside Peyton Devlin with 17 kills. Devlin was followed in kills by Keyara Smith with six and Ashlyn Thompson five.