Skyview volleyball dominated at 4A. Now the Hawks are champions in 5A, too.

Skyview High volleyball coach Kevin Murphy watched his top-seeded Hawks play an error-prone, lethargic first game in the 5A District Three championship match Thursday night at Capital High.

He didn’t panic. He just made a simple request.

“I told the kids ... ‘You guys have played so well for a long period of time. You’re allowed that,’ ” Murphy said. “We had so many kids struggle in that game. ... We took a lump right there. To a person, I tell them how tough (they are) mentally. I said, ‘You gotta prove me right.’ ”

Skyview roared back with three dominant game wins to close out Timberline 14-25, 25-15, 25-17, 25-13 and win the first 5A district title in school history. Both teams will compete in the state tournament next week.

The Hawks moved up this year from 4A, where they had won seven straight district titles and two straight state titles.

Timberline was the two-time defending district champion and, narrowly, the preseason favorite over Skyview. The Wolves also beat the Hawks in a tournament early in the season but Skyview swept through the conference and district schedules.

Sisters Morgan and Whitney Bower said the Hawks changed their attitude after the opening game. They played better and with more emotion the rest of the match.

“The first set woke us up — woke the lion up,” Whitney said.

The youngest of the Bower sisters led the team in kills — Eden Bower had 14. Karen Murphy added 12 kills and 17 digs, Whitney Bower had 11 kills and 20 assists and Morgan Bower contributed a team-high 19 digs.

The veteran players’ ability to handle the ball has been critical to the Hawks’ success this season as they replaced some of their best offensive players and welcomed Eden, a freshman, into the lineup.

The roster turnover provided at least some question about how the Hawks would compete at the 5A level.

“We lost a lot of offense to graduation, but we kept a lot of ball control,” Kevin Murphy said. “And high school volleyball, if you’ve got ball control, you’re in every match. So we kind of knew we would be competitive. How high? How far? That was to be determined.”

The players say they enjoyed the new challenges at 5A, which included learning new opponents and venues and playing in front of larger crowds.

“I definitely expected more competition (at 5A), and more people that didn’t really like us,” Morgan Bower said. “It was definitely the feeling where we do need to prove ourselves.”

This story was originally published October 18, 2018 at 10:49 PM.