The schedule for the Class 3A state volleyball tournament is below.

A total of 12 teams will play in four pools with the winners advancing to a championship bracket.

All matches are at the Denver Coliseum.
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Tournament info

• Tickets for each day of the tournament: Friday | Saturday
• Watch every match live: NFHS Network

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Pool Play Standings

One team per pool advances to the semifinals.

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Schedule

Play begins at 8 a.m. each day. Matches begin 8 minutes following the completion of the match prior.

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Championship bracket

Pool I winner faces Pool IV winner; Pool II winner faces Pool III winner.

Semifinals will start immediately following pool play on Saturday. All finals will begin at 7 p.m.

2015 CHSAA State Volleyball Tournament Class 3A

(Ryan Casey/CHSAANow.com)

The state volleyball tournaments begin play Friday and with the release of the brackets and pairings on Monday, teams now know what’s in store for them come tournament time.

Chatfield, Cheyenne Mountain, Eaton, Resurrection Christian and Otis were given top seeds heading into the weekend tournaments.

Eaton and Resurrection Christian are the only defending state champions to earn top seeds. Eaton took home the Class 3A state title last year while Resurrection Christian won the 2A title.

All classifications will be begin play at 8 a.m. on Friday. Pre-sale tickets for Friday and Saturday are available online.

In 5A, a major shakeup occurred over the weekend as Coronado won Region II, taking No. 2 Mountain Vista out of the tournament. As a result, Cherokee Trail, Chaparral and Rock Canyon each slid up one spot in the seeding. Those three, along with Chatfield, are the top seeded teams in the four pools.

Defending champion Grandview comes in at No. 6.

In all, five teams that went on the road in regionals came away with state tournament berths. Joining Coronado as the non-regional host winners are Regis Jesuit, Denver East, Arapahoe and Fairview.

The full 5A state bracket can be found here.

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In 4A, Cheyenne Mountain takes the top overall spot on the strength of their regular season win over defending state champion Lewis-Palmer.

The Rangers are the No. 2 seed coming into this weekend’s tournament with Ponderosa and Holy Family making up the top teams from their respective pools.

Silver Creek and Mead qualified for the 4A tournament after winning regionals on the road.

The full 4A state bracket can be found here.

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Undefeated Eaton comes in as the top-seeded in team in 3A with fellow Patriot League representatives University and Platte Valley coming in at No. 2 and No. 3, respectively.

Colorado Springs Christian School takes the No. 4 spot.

Hoping for a third-straight Final 4 appearance, the No. 7 Manitou Springs Mustangs will have some work to do as their first match comes against No. 2 University. The Mustangs looked good over the weekend, sweeping their region to capture a state berth.

Frontier Academy and Sterling hit the road to win their regions and qualify for state.

The full 3A state bracket can be found here.

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Joining defending 2A champion Resurrection Christian as a top seed are Yuma, Lyons and Paonia.

Kiowa, Fowler and Limon all won their respective regions despite not hosting them. Lyons, Union Colony, Ridgway and Colorado Springs School all qualified for the 2A tournament with wildcard berths.

The full 2A state bracket can be found here.

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Otis, Idalia, Kit Carson and Flagler make up the top four seeds in the 1A bracket. Defending champion Fleming is ranked No. 6.

Flagler, Fleming, Sangre de Cristo and Springfield all qualified for the 1A state tournament as wildcard teams.

The full 1A bracket can be found here.

State championship matches for all classes will take place at 7 p.m. Saturday night at the Denver Coliseum.

More photos. (Matt Mathewes/MVPSportsPics.com)

GOLDEN – It seemed like his team’s fate was just about sealed when Justin Bassey stepped to the free-throw line Friday night.

Faith Christian’s boys basketball team led Colorado Academy by four points with 10.8 seconds remaining in the Class 3A state semifinals when Bassey was fouled. Instead of giving up hope though, Bassey and his teammates executed the gameplan exactly as it was intended.

By twice intentionally missing the second of his free throws, the junior ended up with six attempts in the closing seconds. His last two attempts he knocked down to tie the game, and the Mustangs went to the foul line 17 more times in overtime as Colorado Academy stunned the top-seeded Eagles 73-67 at Lockridge Arena on the Colorado School of Mines campus.

Colorado Academy (20-6) advanced to the 3A state title game for the second consecutive year and will take on Colorado Springs Christian at 7 p.m. on Saturday with a championship at stake.

“It’s unbelievable. The way that game ended and playing against one of our biggest rivals … I think we were just stunned, almost in awe,” said Bassey, who finished with a game-high 27 points. “I’m still awestruck by how this game ended. I don’t think it’s really sunk in that we’re going to the finals again.”

The Mustangs trailed their Metro League rival by nine points in the third quarter before working their way back into it. Still, after Faith Christian went up 56-52 with 10.8 seconds remaining, things looked bleak. But Bassey missed the second of his attempts from the line, and the tip went out of bounds to Colorado Academy.

Bassey was fouled again, and once more missed the second of his attempts. He grabbed the rebound himself and was fouled for a third time.

“Our plan was to make the first, miss the second,” Bassey said. “It was just a really great job in foresight by our coaches. I attribute it all to the guys who wanted the ball so much. We knew what we had to do and we got out there and executed it.”

Faith Christian (23-3) had gone to overtime Thursday night against Jefferson Academy, and the Mustangs took advantage. With the Eagles in foul trouble, Colorado Academy went 11-of-17 from the line in OT. Christian Hyatt scored 11 of his 18 points in the extra session.

“We felt like we had a lot of momentum, coming off those free throws and knowing the fact they had just played an overtime game the night before,” Bassey said. “We felt we had really strong momentum going into overtime and a lot of energy. Our bench did a really good job of hyping everyone up.”

Peter Vukovich-Simonson and Will Creedon added 10 points each for Colorado Academy. Spencer Bazz paced Faith Christian with 16 points and Chance Bazz added 15, including four 3-pointers in the third quarter alone.

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(2) Colorado Springs Christian 40, (3) Lutheran 31

More photos. (Matt Mathewes/MVPSportsPics.com)

A year ago, Colorado Springs Christian came just one game away from playing for a state championship.

Denied that opportunity, the Lions set out to make things right.

Backed by a defensive effort that limited Lutheran to a season-low 31 points, Colorado Springs Christian pulled away down the stretch Friday night. The Lions advanced to the 3A state title game for the first time since 2008.

“All the guys just worked their tails off for this moment,” CSCS sophomore Justin Engesser said. “All season, we just had that vision in our eyes just to go for it. We did tonight.”

Colorado Springs Christian (25-1) lost to eventual state champion Holy Family in the 2014 state semifinals. The team hasn’t made it to the final game of the season since falling to Faith Christian in 2008.

“We’re a competitive bunch. We want to win,” Lions junior Sam Howard said. “That left a bad taste in our mouths. We got embarrassed last year. We only lost by eight, but it was embarrassing … but I think we’ve learned from it.”

Howard scored a game-high 16 points Friday, including all eight of his team’s points in the third quarter. Lutheran trailed by only one after James Willis opened the fourth with a bucket, but Lutheran went just 1-of-16 the rest of the way.

Lutheran (21-5) averaged 64.2 points a game this season and its previous low was 49 points. The CSCS coaching staff told the team if it could hold Lutheran below that number, the chances of winning were good.

“It was all our defense. I think they only scored four points in that last quarter,” Engesser said. “We shut them down and we got loose balls and ended up making big free throws.”

Brandon Crocker led Lutheran with 13 points and Brendan Edgerley added 12.

More photos. (Matt Mathewes/MVPSportsPics.com)

GOLDEN – It doesn’t surprise Lutheran boys basketball coach Ryan Bredow that three of the final four teams standing in the Class 3A state tournament are from the Metro League.

With those teams going at it night in and night out during the regular season and district play, the level of competition is bound to help give teams an edge come tournament time. But if the Lions want to create an all-Metro League championship game like last year, first they will have to take down Colorado Springs Christian.

“CSCS is outstanding. We know that any time you get this deep in the tournament, every team is good,” Bredow said Thursday after dispatching an upstart Brush squad 66-51 at Lockridge Arena on the Colorado School of Mines campus. “Every team’s got really good players and everybody’s got matchup problems. We’ll come in (Friday) and keep things focused on us and make a run at it.”

Lutheran (21-4) takes on CSCS (22-1) at 5:30 p.m., with Faith Christian (23-2) meeting Colorado Academy (19-6) in the other semifinal.

The Lions had their hands full in the first half with a Beetdiggers team that eliminated Kent Denver and Sterling last weekend. Lutheran led by only six points at halftime before a strong start and end to the third quarter helped put Brush (13-12) away.

“When we went in at halftime, it’s just a senior heavy group that just kind of dialed in,” Bredow said. “We made a few adjustments defensively, and I thought we took better care of the ball in the second half against a little bit of pressure. I thought our shot selection was better in the second half as well.”

Brandon Crocker led the Lions with 20 points. James Willis added 18, Brendan Edgerley had 14 and Josh Clausen finished with 11.

Edgerley had a big steal early in the second half that led to a 3-point play, and the senior also had a steal-and-layup combo late in the third quarter. Edgerley scored six of the team’s seven points during one stretch to push Lutheran’s lead to 50-35.

“I just thought Brendan played really well. He triggers so many things for us on both ends of the floor, and the rest of the guys really feed off his energy,” Bredow said. “When he’s making plays, we’re a much better team.”

Kyle Rosenbrock led Brush with 14 points, all of which came in the second half. Austin Garcia scored 12 points and Niko Guzman added 10.

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(1) Faith Christian 61, (9) Jefferson Academy 54, OT

The Eagles outscored Jefferson Academy 9-2 in overtime after the Jaguars hit two late free throws to force the extra session.

Jefferson Academy led for much of the way and was up by seven going into the fourth quarter before Faith Christian rallied. Grant Harkness hit the go-ahead bucket, and added a free throw with 4.8 seconds left to make it 52-50. Harkness was whistled for a foul though, and the Jaguars’ Joe Rodriguez calmly sank both shots to tie the game.

In overtime, Chance Bazz hit a go-ahead 3-pointer, and Gabe Hegarty followed with a three-point play to make it a six-point advantage.

Harkness scored 18 points and Spencer Bazz added 17 for the Eagles. Joe Raff paced the Jaguars with 19 points.

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(2) Colorado Springs Christian 59, (7) Alamosa 44

Sophomore Justin Engesser and junior Sam Howard combined to score 40 of the team’s 59 points as the Lions rolled past Alamosa.

Engesser was 6-of-8 from the field and 5-of-6 from the free-throw line and added eight rebounds as well. Howard was 8-of-11 and blocked four shots.

Josh Cody led the Mean Moose with 14 points and Ryan Brubacher added 13.

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(4) Colorado Academy 60, (28) Bayfield 44

The Mustangs outscored Bayfield 29-18 in the second half to move back into the state semifinals.

Colorado Academy, which finished second a year ago, received a game-high 21 points from junior Christian Hyatt and 17 more from Justin Bassey. Will Creedon finished with 10 points.

Preston Hardy and Trevor Gabbard led Bayfield with a combined 23 points.

CSCS guard Ross Parker (15) looks to pass the ball into the post during the Lions’ win over Mesa Ridge Thursday night. (Dan Mohrmann/CHSAANow)

COLORADO SPRINGS — A lopsided third quarter proved to be the difference Thursday as Class 3A’s No. 1-ranked Colorado Springs Christian dismantled Mesa Ridge 60-39.

The Grizzlies — a young team with high ambitions — came into CSCS with hopes that an early season win over a powerhouse like the Lions could work wonders for them later in the year. But much like a loss to Pueblo Central earlier this year, Mesa Ridge just couldn’t put together a complete game.

“We set our whole schedule up to make these kids mature,” Mesa Ridge coach Paul Mileto said. “We’re pretty young so we want to mature quick and we have a lot of respect for CSCS.”

Both teams had difficulty establishing an offensive rhythm early. The game started on a good note for the Lions as Ross Parker knocked down an early three-pointer, but that was anything other than a sign of what was to come.

Almost halfway through the first quarter, the two teams had scored a combined eight points. The Lions were able to open it up somewhat, building a 14-8 lead.

Their top offensive threats in Justin Engesser and Sam Howard had only accounted for a combined four points in that span. It was with the steady hand of point guard Chris Hildenbrand that the Lions were able to bide the their time until Engesser and Howard settled in.

But even Hildenbrand thought the team’s play didn’t meet expectations early in the game.

“I think our mental emotion wasn’t there in the beginning; we were a little nervous since it was our first home game,” Hildenbrand said. “(The slow start) is on me because we try to play our game and slow it down. We wanted to make sure we were focused and could play our game.”

Engesser would settle in a bit in the second quarter where he lead all scorers with seven points to finish with nine in the first half. But the Lions continued to struggle to build and maintain a lead. Grizzlies guard Pryce Adams led his team with six points in the first half, but was the victim of a botched call that would contribute to the team’s second half undoing.

Adams was whistled for a foul on Howard, but was standing on the other side of key where the foul occurred. In trying to call the foul on Humphrey Gabriel, the officials called the number of a player that wasn’t even on the floor before assigning the foul on Adams.

“That kind of hurt us and I sat him (at the start of the second half),” Mileto said. “I had to decide if I needed him later in the game and I didn’t want to take a chance in him getting (his fourth) foul early.”

With Adams on the bench, the Lions took advantage. They outscored the Grizzlies by 16 points in the third quarter, giving them a 47-28 lead going into the final eight minutes. The Lions played ball-control offense in the fourth quarter and walked away with the 60-39 win. After scoring two points in the first quarter, Engesser led all scorers with 19 points. Hildenbrand added 14 and Howard finished with 13.

“We’ve had some games where we’ve been up big at halftime and come out in the third quarter and we don’t play hard enough,” Lions coach Mark Engesser said. “It was a three-point game and we needed to come out and focus in the third quarter and the guys did just that.”