Defending champion Maryvale Prep and top-seeded Archbishop Spalding set up Sunday night’s Interscholastic Athletic Association of Maryland A Conference volleyball championship rematch with three-set victories in their tournament semifinals Thursday afternoon.

No. 9 Maryvale defeated Mount de Sales, 27-25, 25-17, 25-21, while the No. 6 Cavaliers remained unbeaten against A Conference competition with a 25-21, 25-17, 25-13 win over Annapolis Area Christian School.

They will meet for the championship Sunday at 6 p.m. at Stevenson University in Owings Mills.

After polishing off a perfect season with the championship last season, the Lions (10-4) were determined to get back to the title game, especially when they dropped the regular-season match to Spalding (10-2) in three sets two weeks ago.

“The environment at championships is just so fun and I’m so excited to have the opportunity to be back and then to play Spalding again in the championship, it’s exactly what we wanted,” said Maryvale’s Samantha Elliott, who had 18 kills in the match as did Libby Potter.

The Cavaliers are excited about the title match too. They don’t want to settle for just winning the regular-season match.

“It means everything to them. It means everything to me,” Spalding coach Corby Lawrence said. “If we’re going to be the best, we have to beat the best. They were clearly the better team last year. I think going into it this year, we’ve had a little bit of an advantage because we won the one (regular-season match), but… Maryvale made a statement (Thursday night) I would assume, winning 3-0, and they’re as ready for this as we are. We can’t wait.”

While the Cavaliers also beat Annapolis Area Christian in three sets during the regular season, Mount de Sales (9-6) pushed Maryvale to five.

Thursday night, the host Lions shook off a slow start and used the power of outside hitters Elliott and Potter to drive the victory. Neither player ever came off the floor and both attacked from the back row too. Elliott, who had been a middle hitter, moved to the outside after Olivia Munoz suffered a season-ending knee injury shortly after the Spalding match, but she hit from all over the front row against the Sailors.

“They were the Achilles heel the last time as well,” said Mount de Sales coach Andre Quattlebaum of Elliott and Potter. “They were just consistent with their hitting. We had a lot of misreads on a lot of them. We started off with timely blocking and then we eased up a little bit. A lot of times when we did get the tip blocks, we weren’t there on the ball side to be able to follow through with the tip blocks and then they began to have a little bit of momentum.”

The Lions fell behind early in the first game but rallied to take a 21-16 lead before the Sailors went on a 7-1 run. Emily Kuczynski’s ace gave Maryvale a little momentum, but the set was tied at 23, 24 and 25 before Elliott’s tip block and Potter’s kill finished it off.

The Sailors stayed close through the middle of the next two sets before the Lions closed out the match.

“This time we were prepared,” said Potter. “We’ve been practicing for this all week. We played Arundel on Monday which I really think helped us to realize we are a good team no matter who we play.”

After losing to the No. 1 Wildcats in three sets, Maryvale coach Missy Little said she was impressed with the energy her team brought to Thursday’s match.

Senior libero Athena Savick, who had 25 digs in the match, agreed.

“Our last game against [Mount de Sales] wasn’t as good,” she said, “and we were like, ‘We have to beat them in three.’ We were really hyped. I’m so glad that wasn’t my last win, because I really want that championship win to be the last game of my high school career.”

Elliott and Potter also combined for 25 digs while junior setter Kaitlyn Hall, who also played the entire match, had 38 assists.

Gianna Dinoto led the Sailors with nine kills.

At Spading, junior outside hitter Maya Mauro led the Cavaliers with 12 kills and senior outside hitter Addison Collins had eight against the Eagles (9-5). Senior setter Kristen Burton had 24 assists and senior libero Sophie Vance had 21 digs.

“It was a battle. All three sets were a battle,” Lawrence said. “They had a really good game plan. They came out with a little bit of a 6-2, but you never knew when Madison Sydney was going to be the setter or when she was going to be the hitter and every time she was the hitter, she was effective, so we had to constantly make sure we were paying attention to their game plan. They came in prepared and we had to work every set, every point, but that was good.”

Sunday night, the Cavaliers are aiming for their third A Conference title and their first since 2011. Maryvale won its first A Conference crown last season to go with their 2016 B Conference championship.