The anxiety was up. The serves were off.

The deficit wasn’t unsurmountable, but it was a dire situation.

Zach Robinson had a choice to make as his Campo Verde players walked toward him a little dejected and/or shellshocked. Rip them so they wake up or stay even keel and reiterate what the Coyotes set out to do back in February.

The Campo Verde boys volleyball coach chose the latter and it led to an epic 14-25, 23-25, 25-15, 25-22, 16-14 comeback over Arizona College Prep Saturday in the 5A state championship match at Skyline High School.

“He reminded us of why were here,” senior Malakai Bredensteiner said. “We didn’t put in all that work to get run out of the gym. We refocused, fixed our service line and stayed confident. It was a tough match, and we knew they were going make it hard, but we made it even harder on ourselves with that start. We never lost confidence.”

Bredensteiner had the title winning kill as he came from the right side and put down a kill that went off an ACP player and then off the court to send the Campo players, bench, coaching staff and fans into a frenzy.

It’s the second state title for the top-seeded Coyotes (22-7), with the first one coming in 2019 when Robinson was an assistant. He’s in his fifth season and has had this group for their entire careers, sending six seniors off with a state championship celebration is a nice parting gift.

“These guys have come so far and worked so hard,” Robinson said. “This group pushed us to get to this point. Back in February I knew this was the destination and we did everything we could to get here.

“It would have been a shame to lose it. We had some nerves, you could see it in those first two sets, and we were struggling with our serves early on, but we pulled it together. I knew this team wasn’t going to give into (the two-set deficit). They have too much heart.”

On the other side, ACP (25-8) was hurting a bit after giving up that two-set lead, but coach KJ Sturz knew it was anything but over after grabbing the early advantage.

“We came out strong and they were a little flat,” Sturz said. “We knew they weren’t going to go away or give into the pressure of being down. I thought we had enough to get one more (set), but they came back stronger than I thought they would, while we didn’t match their intensity.

“It was a fun match and that’s what makes boys volleyball so great. They just had a little more on this day.”

The two programs know each other well, as they are both in the Easy Sky Region and played three times this, with Campo winning the first two. ACP, which won the 4A state title last year, won the third match and carried an 11 match win streak into the championship match .

“We made it to the state championship game after moving up a division, and I couldn’t be more proud,” Sturz said. “We had a great season. We are losing some key pieces, but we will be back.”

ACP was led by senior setter and captain Kaden Wong, senior outside hitter Logan Coking, junior Kaden Sanders among others.

But it was the Coyotes that prevailed behind the play of Bredensteiner, junior Owen Horton, junior Josh Ikeda, senior Isaiah Holland, senior Daniel Burgess, and senior setter Carter Skousen.

The offense runs through Skousen, a team captain, and he knew that if they remained calm after the first two sets, it was going to be OK.

“I had to stay positive,” he said. “We feed off each other, and if I let the frustration set it in or look defeated, everyone would have felt that. I knew this team wasn’t going to go out like that.

“We began the year knowing this was our destination, our plan. It was ours to lose and we weren’t going to let that happen.”