Back-And-Forth State Championship Volleyball Match Sees Maloney Edge Conard

NEWTOWN, CT — Two of the oldest cliches in sports are "third time's the charm" and "it's hard to beat a team three times in one season." Both of those tried-and-true sayings came to fruition Friday night in the Newtown High School gymnasium, as Maloney upended undefeated top seed Conard 3-2 to capture the CIAC Class L boys volleyball championship.

Game scores were 20-25, 25-19, 25-20, 23-25 and 15-13.

The Spartans entered the finals having lost just two matches all season. Ironically, both defeats were in five sets at the hands of Central Connecticut Conference rival Conard, which was looking to cap a perfect season at 24-0 and more importantly, win the school's first boys volleyball state title ever.

The Red Wolves got of to a hot start, comfortably posting a 25-20 victory in the opening set, before Maloney came back to grab a 2-1 lead. The Spartans appeared poised to ice the victory in the fourth set, leading 23-21, but Conard won the final four points to even the match at 2-all and set up a race-to-15 fifth set for the title.

Conard led 9-8 in the deciding set, but Maloney posted five straight points to grab a 13-9 advantage. The Red Wolves recovered with three consecutive points to close the gap to 13-12, then the teams traded points for a 14-13 Spartan edge.

On the second championship point, the two squads engaged in along rally, which finally culminated in a kill shot by Maloney's Wes Colebrook. Before the Spartans could claim victory, however, the officials conferred as to whether or not the shot had landed in bounds. After what seemed like an agonizing time span, which in reality was jut a few moments, the verdict was the shot was indeed good, launching Spartan players, coaches and fans into a raucous celebration.

Maloney won its second-ever state title 20 years after capturing the Class M crown in 2005. A member of that team, Kevin Savejs, is now head coach of the Spartans, and got to experience deja vu.

Conard was making its debut appearance in a state final.