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Luckily for Siarkas, his team was anything but.

Thanks to a well-rounded group of athletic blockers and near-perfect digging, the Warriors (14-1 record) were able to overcome the powerful hitting of Mullsteff and teammate Kailee May, The Gazette Player of the Year this past fall in girls volleyball, and took home their second straight county title in four games, 25-17, 23-25, 25-21, 25-20.

‘‘Oh my God, watching him warm up, I was scared to death,” said Siarkas of Mullsteff. ‘‘But this is a team sport. We knew going in it was going to be six versus two, and you know, our boys are athletic as hell and our girls are just so solid.”

Sherwood’s rotation of girls were used to facing and beating the best, as was confirmed when they helped buoy the Warriors to the Class 4A state championship this past fall. Three of the four who got the bulk of court-time last Thursday were Claire Kodan, Kelly Abramson and Kerry Collins, all key contributors to the girls’ title run. Though they couldn’t control or reach all of Mullsteff’s blasts, they dug almost everything else they could get their hands on.

If the girls were all experienced, the boys were all ‘‘Young”. Literally.

Tommy, Pat and Juwan Young took turns blocking the net to the best of their abilities, and held Damascus’ (14-1) dynamic duo in check for much of the night. And it was Tommy who set the tone for the entire night when he swatted Mullsteff’s first spike attempt right back at him for the second point of the match.

‘‘After Tommy was blocking him just a little bit, I felt good,” Siarkas said. ‘‘I said, you know, he’s going to get his points, there’s no way around it. He just pounds the ball. But I thought, if we could slow him, we were just making so few mistakes.”

Damascus head coach K.C. Landefeld would take his argument a step further, particularly the ‘‘few” part.

‘‘Nothing hits the ground with them — it’s unbelievable,” he said. ‘‘I’ll give them all the credit, they’re just solid everywhere.”

Though Sherwood played relatively error-free throughout all four games, Damascus showed early how it got through its first 14 matches unscathed, winning a close second game in come-from-behind fashion.

Mullsteff opened the third game with a powerful slam, but from that point on, the Warriors strutted their stuff. Juwan Young came through with several emphatic blocks, one of which was punctuated by a stare-down (which drew a yellow card), and Pat Young put-away a game three clincher.

At that point, Sherwood could taste victory. Collins held four straight serves to lead the Warriors to a 5-0 lead in the fourth game, and returned the final point of the match, which was hit out of bounds by Damascus.

Nobody was happier than Siarkas, who became the first coach in Montgomery County history to lead both boys and coed volleyball teams to county titles. But even he’d admit that the nightcap was more satisfying.

‘‘To be honest, with the boys, I wasn’t too worried,” he said. ‘‘This one, I was a little worried about. But they came through.”

Sherwood boys 3, Rockville 0

Since boys volleyball champions have been crowned in Montgomery County, no team has suffered more heartache than Sherwood. Dating back to 1993, the Warriors have reached the title game six times, including the last two years. But the song has been the same — always a bridesmaid.

Well, they’re finally the bride. Or, to be fair, the groom. Heck, just call them champs.

In a dominating, three-game performance to cap off an equally dominating undefeated season, the Warriors (15-0) finally captured the elusive county championship, defeating Rockville 25-17, 25-16 and 25-21 last Thursday at Magruder High.

Sherwood had another bit of history going against them prior to the match: it had entered the season’s final match unbeaten in both 2005 and 2006 before losing to Blair both times. But after jumping off to a quick nine-point lead in the first game, it was clear that the Warriors wouldn’t be denied this time.

‘‘It’s obvious to anyone that watches that this team’s got tons of talent,” said boys head coach Pete Siarkas, who also later in the evening coached the Sherwood coed team to the county title. ‘‘It’s pretty amazing to have six talented players when most teams have one or two. I wouldn’t want to play them.”

The only team that threatened the Warriors all season long was their longtime nemesis Blair, who took them to five games in the final match of the regular season. That was Siarkas’ first go-round at the helm for the boys in replacement of former coach John Bonebrake.

It didn’t take him long to figure out that no one else would challenge his new squad. After cruising to playoff victories over Seneca Valley, Springbrook and Kennedy, the Warriors jumped all over Rockville (13-2) right from the start. They were led by junior Mik Berzins, a coed player until this year who quickly became Sherwood’s most powerful outside hitter, and senior setter Jeff Moy, who began the match with a putaway and set the table for teammates all night.

But they were far from being alone. Seniors Erick Alves deSa and 6-foot-4 Chris Wisor smothered Ram hitters, including standout Benjamin Hollies, outstandingly at the net, and Alex Owen complemented Berzins with timely hitting on the outside.

‘‘I don’t think there was anyone that could beat us,” said Berzins. ‘‘Just all-around, we’re so strong. Our middles with Erick and Wisor were blocking really well, Alex played opposite of me with his lefties, and Jeff just set well for us all season.”

Siarkas added: ‘‘I knew going into this tournament that the only team that could beat us was ourselves. It wasn’t a hard job for me.”

The Rams were gunning for their second county championship in school history, with their lone title coming in 1994. After losing just once in the regular season, Rockville made a somewhat surprising run to the final, capped off with a come-from-behind, five-game victory over Walter Johnson in the semifinals.

And though they couldn’t go all the way, they more than exceeded the expectations of first-year head coach David Le.

Note: Sherwood became the first school, and only the second ever, to win both the coed and boys county titles in the same season since Quince Orchard pulled the trick in 1997. The coed title was Sherwood’s seventh overall (sixth in the last eight years) since the tournament began in 1993. Damascus has never won a county title in coed or boys volleyball.