Bishop England wins its 10th in a row

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Bishops in State Championship Volleyball

The Bishop England volleyball team beat Gilbert in three straight games to win the AA State Volleyball Championship Saturday in Lexington.

LEXINGTON -- The Bishop England volleyball team swept its way to another Class AA state volleyball championship by topping Gilbert 25-4, 25-12, 25-19 on Saturday afternoon at White Knoll High School.

The Bishops won their 50th straight postseason tournament match and 10th consecutive state title. Bishop England has won 20 titles since the High School League sanctioned the sport in the

1970s. The Bishops have not dropped a game in a playoff match since 2004.

It was a slightly different cast for the Bishops from last year, but the results were the same.

"Like I have always said, it's a different group of kids," Bishop England coach Cindy Baggott said. "I guess to everybody else it gets old and boring but absolutely not to us. They start in the preseason from scratch and these kids deserve a lot of credit for what they've accomplished.

"It's overwhelming when you sit back and think about it," Baggott said of the Bishops' decade of dominance.

It was almost evident from the beginning the Bishops (22-1) were playing on a different level. They dropped the first point of the first game before ripping off 12 straight points to take control.

Mary Crawford James, Ellie James and CC Deas dominated at the net. All three players are listed at 5-11 and were teeing off against the smaller Indians' frontline on passes from Katie Cummings. James, an Erskine commitment, finished with 19 kills with five of them coming in the opening game. Cummings had 33 assists and Rebecca Kerrison had 24 digs.

"It's a good feeling coming into a state championship knowing the firepower we have," Baggott said.

The Indians (24-2) never seemed to recover from the Bishop England run in the first game.

"That first game had to take a lot out of them," Baggott said. "For a lack of better words, we played flawless in that first game. They were passing, the setting was there and that gave our frontline a chance to go up and get a big swing on it. I was a little shocked we came out that strong."

Gilbert was making its second straight title game appearance. The rallying cry from last year's championship loss was to close the gap between No. 1 and No. 2.

"I'm not ashamed of anything from my team," Gilbert coach Jackie Shealy said. "We deserved to be here. This group said from the beginning of the season that they would give nothing less than their best and they did. They need to walk out of here holding their heads high."

Chris Dearing of The State contributed to this report.