SOUTH PORTLAND — They had an undefeated record, and status as the Class B championship favorite – and maybe the state’s best team overall.

So with a chance to finish it off, the players on the Washington Academy volleyball team must have felt pressure, right? Nerves? Expectations?

Not exactly.

“Our motto today was ‘Just have fun,'” senior Reese Crosman said. “I think we did that.”

Fun and celebration were in ample supply Saturday, as the top-ranked Raiders won the Class B championship by defeating second-seeded York, 3-1, at Southern Maine Community College.

Washington (17-0) won the first set, 25-14, before York pulled even with a 25-17 win in the second set. Then the Raiders won two straight 25-16 sets to clinch the title.

It’s the seventh state championship for the Raiders and the fourth in Class B, and it comes after Washington lost to Yarmouth in last year’s final.

“Toward the end of the season, it was so fun and easy to play together,” said junior Kellan Schwinn, who had a team-high 10 kills to go with 10 digs. “We play loose, that’s our motto. We just go after everything.”

The Wildcats (14-3) fell short Saturday but made program history by reaching their first state final, beating five-time defending champion Yarmouth to get there.

“Even though right now it feels really hard, I think everyone should be really proud,” senior Brooke Roe said.

This Raiders team proved itself to be the best team in Class B, and could be the best in the state. Washington lost four sets the whole season, and the wins came against a schedule that included formidable opponents in Yarmouth (twice) and Class A champion Gorham.

“I’m just super proud of how our girls have worked, and how dedicated they are to the sport,” Washington Coach Corey Schwinn said. “This is something they’ve been working on for years.”

The Raiders showed a versatile, organized attack that’s been the formula in their dominant run. Libero Autumn Balyint (28 digs) was everywhere, lunging off balance time and again to keep hits from reaching the floor. Crosman (six kills) led the service game with four aces, and also combined with Schwinn and Aubrey Faulkingham (seven kills) to form a powerful trio at the net. Avery Libby and Lily Hennessey consistently provided them with perfect setups.

“We’re very well-rounded,” Crosman said. “We just didn’t take anything for granted (today).”

In the first set, Washington had York on its heels early, going up 15-5.

“They don’t make many mistakes,” York Coach Suzanne Bradley said. “We said ‘We’ve got to beat the machines today.’ … You can’t play a team like that being not aggressive, so that leads maybe to some more errors. I want them to serve hard, which is going to lead to some more serving errors. But that’s the only way to beat a team like Washington Academy, to get them out of system, which we did in that second set.”

Indeed, York gained the upper hand in the second set, with two kills from Roe and two aces from Jill Holland.

“We all just wanted to put it behind us, and give all we had in that second set,” Roe said.

If the Raiders were fazed, they didn’t show it. Seven straight points with Libby serving broke a 5-5 tie and gave them control for good in the third set, and the Raiders scored seven of eight points to break open an 8-7 lead in the fourth.

“I saw that we were being pushed in that second set, and there were signs that we weren’t as clean as what we usually were. Kudos to York, they did phenomenal,” Corey Schwinn said. “But once we hit the reset after that second set, we came out and just kept rolling. I’m very pleased with our squad and how they picked each other up.”

Bradley expressed pride in her team as well.

“They laid their hearts out there and fought hard,” she said. “To get here and be here is an accomplishment, I think. … I have a young team. They’ll be back.”