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KENNEWICK -- The Pullman volleyball team stared down the barrel of elimination Friday night and lived to tell about it.
So dropping two sets to Archbishop Murphy to set up a winner-take-all fifth set in Saturday night's 2A championship match at Toyota Center wasn't going to faze the Greyhounds.
Pullman jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the decisive set and held on for a 25-22, 25-21, 19-25, 20-25, 15-12 victory over the Wildcats for its first state title since 2005.
The Greyhounds (29-2) needed to save six match points in the fifth set of their quarterfinal win over Burlington-Edison on Friday.
"We were so close to going out, it's scary how close," said Pullman junior Shelby Cheslek, who had 16 kills in the title match. "And now, we've won state. It's really surreal. It's hard to believe we won."
First-year Greyhounds coach Dave Weitz also found it hard to believe but knew the source for his team's grittiness in the face of adversity.
"These girls fight for each other and want each other to win," he said. "They didn't argue with each other when the chips were down. It was a total team effort."
Archbishop Murphy (28-5), which until Friday had never advanced out of the first round at state, also faced a five-setter on its road to the final, rallying from 2-1 down and beating Fife on its eighth match point in the semifinals.
"We set all new records with this team," said Wildcats coach Jeff Curtis, who was an assistant for Eastside Catholic last year when it finished second at the 3A tournament.
"We'd never won a district title before. We'd never won a first-round match at state, never reached the quarterfinals, the semifinals. These five seniors walk away knowing that 20 years from now, they can say that they were on the leading edge of something special."
Grandview, which lost to Archbishop Murphy in Friday's first round, dropped its consolation quarterfinal to R.A. Long 16-25, 23-25, 25-15, 25-22, 15-8 and was eliminated.
"We reverted back to playing careful and young," said Greyhounds coach John LaFever, whose team started no seniors. "I hate to lose, but this was a good experience for us as long as we learn that we need to get a little bit tougher. When we needed to be, we weren't tough."
Black Hills, which was swept by Pullman in the semifinals, rebounded to beat Fife 25-27, 25-20, 22-25, 25-16, 15-10 to place third, its highest finish ever.
Selah, which won titles from 2005-07 and lost in last year's 2A final, took fourth with a 25-18, 25-21, 27-25 victory over West Valley (Spokane).
Anacortes defeated Colville in the consolation final for fifth and eighth place.
