The Knights’ gold team finished a perfect season Nov. 18 with a victory over the Spartans in the championship game.

“It was a good game; we just couldn’t pull it together,” said Spartans’ coach Josh Conley, a senior from Lomita, Calif.

Putting up a good fight, the Spartans forced the match to go five games. The Spartans won the second and third game, but the Knights recovered and went on to victory.

“We came out strong at first. We knew the only way we could beat the Spartans would be if we could keep the momentum up. This was a great way to top off a perfect season,” said Knights’ captain Johnny Bankhead, a senior from Fairfield, Idaho.

The Knights won the first, fourth and fifth games with 8-, 15- and 3-point margins respectively.

The Spartans won the second and third games with scores of 30-26 and 30-27.

“[The match] was a lot of fun; both teams had a lot of class, and it was a good competition. No regrets,” said Spartans player Hyrum Neilson, a junior from Cordova, Ark.

The Knights came into the championship undefeated. All the previous times the Spartans have played the Knights, they have lost, but this time they played all five games.

“We expected it to be an intense game. We expected it to be a dogfight. The Spartans are a good fundamentals team. We knew they’d come out strong, so this was just a good game,” said Knights player Cache Allen, a senior from Hacienda Heights, Calif.

The Knights’ blue team did not fair so well. Only winning one game, the Knights were defeated by the Spartans.

The gold and blue teams are patterned after high school’s varsity and junior varsity teams.

The match started on Nov. 18 around 10 p.m. and did not end until 12:30 a.m., Nov. 19. Dedicated fans stuck around to support their favorite team.

“Everyone was willing to work hard and improve [this season],” said Naylan Haslam, a freshman from Airdrie, Alberta.