Leaning against a wall outside of the Bethlehem Academy locker room at Xcel Energy Center, Cardinals activities director Edward Friesen exhaled and shrugged his shoulders.

"We're an odd team," he said.

Well, yes.

The gesture came after Bethlehem Academy won its fifth Class 1A state volleyball championship -- one every other year since 2003.

In Saturday's title match against unseeded Nevis, the Cardinals never wavered in a 25-9, 25-14, 25-8 sweep. They committed only 10 errors in the match and allowed the Tigers to string together consecutive points just five times.

All while starting two freshmen, two juniors, a senior and a seventh-grader.

Talk about unconventional.

"I really don't think we've played any better than that," veteran coach Franz Boelter said. "Some of it was tough luck on [Nevis'] side, but we established things early.

"And we never, ever backed off."

Nevis (25-8) fell behind by 10 points in each set before the Cardinals (27-9) ever got to 15 points. Bethlehem Academy, the top seed, was the more prepared team in all facets, and will have youth on its side for years to come.

No surprise there.

The Cardinals also won in 2009 with two freshmen and a seventh-grader in the lineup.

That isn't a given, however. Boelter, in his 20th season, said he would not put a player on the court if he didn't feel she was prepared or did not have the backing of her teammates.

Daisy Jo Robinson -- the lone senior starter -- served for the final three points of the match. She split the majority of the Cardinals' set assists with Payton Nutter, her middle-school counterpart.

"When she came in this summer we saw she had the spirit and the ability to get us to where we wanted to go," Robinson said. "I took her under my wing. Team unity is one of our biggest keys."

Juniors Maddie Borwege and Jessie Mathews combined for 25 of the Cardinals' 36 kills.