Nebraska high school volleyball state championships roundup
Six state champions were crowned Saturday at the Bob Devaney Sports Center.
The most illustrious dynasty in Nebraska high school sports history kept rolling. A relatively new force in Class C-2 also kept its championship momentum rolling. In Class A, frustration ended. In Class C-1 and D-1, title droughts of more than 40 years finally ended. Class D-1, four years of hard work came to a rousing conclusion for one senior class.
Class A: Silver Hawks soar to championship heights
Frustration had mostly been the story of Lincoln Southwest volleyball at the state tournament. In 16 trips, the Silver Hawks had won a total of six matches. Before a first-round win over Millard West last season, they had lost nine in a row.
All of that frustration was put in the past Saturday when Southwest, a program that had never won a volleyball title, took down Papillion-La Vista, a traditional powerhouse with five championship trophies in the case.
The Silver Hawks put together the most convincing win of the day in the final match of the day 25-14, 25-17, 25-16. It was the first time a team from outside the Omaha Metro won a volleyball title since Lincoln Northeast in 1998.
Southwest made school history by taking advantage of Papio mistakes and riding its defense. The Monarchs made 22 attack errors, five serving errors, five receiving errors and five blocking errors. Finding a way to get to 75 total points – 25 three times – is a lot easier when a team can force the opposition to give nearly half of that away.
And force Southwest did. A relentless defense totaled 61 digs on 117 Papio shots and held the Monarchs to .034 hitting.
Southwest had four runs of four straight points in the first set, ending it on four in a row and kills by Emerson Lionberger, Abbie Appleget, an ace by Lionberger and a double block by Appleget and Shelby Harding.
The Silver Hawks didn’t have any extended runs in the second but gradually overwhelmed the Monarchs to the tune of 22 digs, six errors and three blocks. Up 13-11, Southwest won eight of the next ten and eventually finished the set on a Papio service error.
The Monarchs led 9-7 in the third and 16-14 the Silver Hawks put together 11 straight points for the title. Three Papio hitting errors and two Southwest blocks defined the run.
Lionberger hit .348 and had 11 kills. Malayah Long set up 33 assists. Aaliyah Bradford led with 16 digs.
Morgan Glaser had eight digs for Papio while Reagan Hickey totaled 14 assists and Faith Frame had 15 digs.
Class B: Nine so fine – Skyhawks keep the dynasty rolling
At what point does a dynasty become ridiculous? Beauty is in the eye of the beholder but there’s undoubtedly both admiration and envy for what’s continuing to happen for Skutt Catholic.
The Skyhawks dominated another Class B state title on Saturday at the Bob Devaney Sports Center and won their ninth volleyball championship in a row 25-21, 25-20, 25-15 over Norris
Domination hasn’t been the case lately. Skutt was pushed to five sets by Elkhorn North last season and beat the same Norris team in four for titles in 2021 and 202s. But out of the nine in a row, the Skyhawks have won five of those by sweep.
Although the latest came in three sets, it was steady play more than domination in any particular area that separated Skutt on Saturday. Defense was the key. While the Skyhawks had just nine more digs, they also had 11 blocks and limited the Titans to .161 hitting.
Kiera Link led the effort at the net, piling up nine blocks. Paisley Douglas had 21 digs while Abbie Hagedorn led Skutt with 11 kills and a double-double that included 12 digs.
The two sides traded runs early in the first set and landed at an 11-11 tie on a kill by Hagedorn. A kill by Link, ace by Hagedorn and double block from Link and Sydney Schram restored a Skutt at 14-11. The Skyhawks won the first four points then eventually fell behind 11-10.
Skutt held a two-point edge throughout the rest of the set and won it on a kill by Addison West.
Set two had a similar opening. The Skyhawks led 6-1 then fell behind 10-9. The Titans held a 16-14 lead but surrendered six of the next eight. It was a 20-19 Skutt lead when Link had three block assists and a kill. Hagedorn closed it on a kill. Skutt had five blocks in the set.
The Skyhawks had just two more in the third but the back row took over. The Skutt defense limited Norris to .049 hitting in the third. The Skyhawks scored seven of the first 10 points and essentially enjoyed a coronation over the last half of the set. A Norris service error and Skutt aces by Brooke Banker and Hagedorn closed it out.
Anna Jelinek led Norris with 14 kills and 14 digs.
Class C-1: Whippets turn back the clock, earn Minden first volleyball title in 43 years
Kearney Catholic ruined Minden hopes for a perfect season when the Stars won a five-set subdistrict final just a few weeks ago. The Whippets had only lost two sets all season when the Stars ended a run of 32 straight wins. Kearney Catholic was in the way again on Saturday during the Class C-1 state championship.
To make history, could it have happened any other way?
In a near carbon copy of 11 days ago, the Whippets dropped the opening set, won the next two but were forced into a fifth. This time, Minden ran away with the race to 15 and took home the first volleyball championship for the program since 1980. The Whippets claimed their second-ever title in five title match appearances 23-25, 25-22, 25-23, 19-25, 25-10
Kearney Catholic also took the opening set on Oct. 24, dropped the next two then forced a fifth and won it 15-8. Minden took the fifth this time by jumping out to a 7-5 lead then winning five of the next seven rallies.
Myla and Mattie Kamery each had triple-doubles on kills, assists and digs. Mattie piled up 22 kills with 15 assists and 19 digs while Myla sent 15 shots to the floor, set up 24 assists and had 22 digs.
Defense was the dominant factor in the outcome. Minden held Kearney Catholic to .124 hitting, blocked 13 shots and totaled 107 digs. The Stars limited the Whippets to .119 hitting, had 8 and 1/2 blocks and 115 digs.
It was tied 23-23 in the first following a Mattie Kamery ace. But she came out of a timeout and gave the serve back over to Kearney Catholic on a service error. Stars senior Margaret Haarberg ended with one of her 16 kills.
Minden won the second despite 11 service errors and a .059 attack percentage. A Haarberg ace put Kearney Catholic up 20-18 and had the Stars on the brink of a 2-0 advantage. They couldn’t finish due to a service error and back-to-back hitting errors that gave Minden the set. It was tied 20-20 in the third when the Whippets won five of the next seven that included two Myla Emery kills, two Stars service errors and a kill by Minden junior Kinsie Land for the final point.
Kearney Catholic senior Aibrey Mandernach staked the Stars to a 17-12 lead in the fourth and they led by at least three points the rest of the way.
Mattie Kamery had three of her kills and a block in the deciding set. Back-to-back Stars errors had the Whippets up 10-6. Another attack error made it 12-7 in favor of Minden. A double block by Myla Emery and Makenna Betty sealed the championship point.
Class C-2: Warrior three-peat denies Clarkson/Leigh
It was a little bit of a David and Goliath story in Saturday’s Class D-2 state volleyball championship. Clarkson/Leigh is no stranger to recent success, playing at state to finish five of the past seven seasons. But between Clarkson and Leigh, the two schools had just four state wins before combining and have only won one state match since combining programs.
Lincoln Lutheran has won more state tournament matches than Clarkson, Leigh or the combo has ever played. Perhaps it was that championship pedigree that made the difference in the Warriors coming up clutch for a five-set 25-23, 25-21, 20-25, 22-25, 15-12 victory.
Lincoln Lutheran took its third straight championship while playing in its fifth championship match of the past six seasons.
A kill by Sophie Wohlgemuth, one by Ava Jurevicius and a Keri Leimbach ace broke a 10-10 tie in the fifth and put Lutheran up 13-10. The two teams traded the next four points, both of which Warrior points came on Wohlgemuth’s 18th and 19th kills of the set. She put together a double-double that also included 18 digs. Jurevicius had 13 kills and matched Wohlgemuth with 18 digs. Lily Wohlgemuth led all players with 20 kills and hit .208.
Lincoln Lutheran came back from down 19-12 in the first set by winning eight of nine rallies for a 20-20 tie. Four Warrior kills and a Patriot error were the difference down the stretch.
Clarkson/Leigh returned the favor in the second and tied it up after trailing 14-8. The Patriots led 21-19 but let it slip away again by losing the final six points. Lily Wohlgemuth had four of six kills in that span.
A Lutheran attack error then three straight Clarkson/Leigh kills by Chloe Hanel broke a 12-12 tie in the third. The Patriots led the rest of the way and had six of Hanel’s team-high 19 kills in the set.
Six straight Clarkson/Leigh points in the fourth had the Patriots up 14-8. Again, they led the rest of the way and never allowed the Warriors any closer than the three-point final margin.
Hanel hit .314 and had 20 digs. Lincoln Lutheran setter Jillian Donovan had 59 assists while teammate Keri Leimbach totaled 36 digs.
Class D-1: Kenton’s crew gets it done 43 years after she and her teammates came up short
Sumner-Eddyville-Miller (SEM) had one other volleyball trophy in the case at school before Saturday. Well, the Mustangs actually have two counting the runner-up trophy from 1980.
SEM was back in Lincoln the very next year and took the Class D 1981 championship. But for current Mustang coach Tammy Kenton, she missed that moment by a year. Kenton was a senior on the 1980 squad and could only watch from the stands when SEM made history 12 months later.
Forty-three years after she and her teammates were denied by Ansley, her players made sure Kenton wouldn’t suffer that fate again during a 28-26, 25-15, 20-25, 25-21 Class D-1 title win over Amherst.
The player most responsible for getting Kenton back to that moment was senior Mikah O’Neill. The SEM middle hitter totaled 33 kills, hit .303 and had 28 digs. O’Neill and sophomore Taryn Arbuthnot had 56 kills between them and both hit over .250 on a day neither team hit better than .207.
SEM won the first four points of the match and led 5-1 early but the remainder of the set included 11 ties and five lead changes. Amherst had the first set point before O’Neill tied it at 25. The Mustangs won the next point as well but were denied the set on an Amherst kill by Hannah Herrick. O’Neill had SEM on the doorstep again, Amherst and Herrick denied again, but an O’Neill kill and Amherst hitting error finally ended it.
SEM ran away with the second by hitting .386, had six kills by O’Neill and seven from Arbuthnot. Amherst took control of the third with an 8-2 run following a 13-13 tie. SEM never came closer than four after five kills, two blocks and a Mustang attack error put the Broncos up 21-15.
Four O’Neill kills and a block assist sparked SEM to a 9-2 lead to start the fourth. The Mustangs enjoyed at least a three-point advantage the rest of the way, and O’Neill secured the championship on her 33rd kill of the match.
Katelynn Reiter set up 35 assists for the Mustangs while teammate Jaycelyn Hoos had 28. O’Neill also had 28 digs. Allie Rhode led SEM with 37.
Herrick’s 15 kills paced Amherst. Saryn Prickett led with 25 assists and Herrick had 34 digs.
Class D-2: Overton seniors complete golden era of Eagles volleyball
JoLee Ryan was a major part of the 202 Overton volleyball team that gave the program its first back-to-back trips to state in school history. Saturday in Lincoln, she and her senior teammates finally completed a journey that was four years in the making.
Behind Ryan’s 15 kills, three aces and 13 digs, Overton won the first volleyball championship in school history 25-21, 25-21, 29-27 over Cambridge. Ryan played in all 84 sets, collected 163 kills and hit .241 in her rookie season. She ends her career with 1,523 kills, a .394 hitting percentage, 149 aces, 97 blocks and 1,232 digs.
She and fellow seniors Natalie Wood, Adysen McCarter, Gracyn Luther and Ashlynn Florell will graduate with four straight trips to state, a third-place finish, runner-up trophy and, finally, the elusive championship trophy.
Each of the other four seniors played their own specific roles. Wood had 14 kills, McCarter collected 16 digs, Luther was 14 for 14 serving with seven digs and Florell set up 31 assists.
Ryan had three kills in the first 12 rallies and Overton raced out to a 10-2 lead in the first set. The Eagles led by at least four through the remainder of the set but nearly let the Trojans back into it when Cambridge fought off seven straight set points before Wood ended it on a kill.
Overton won five in a row down 20-19 in the second and took control thanks to two kills by Wood and a block assist. The Eagles won 16-8 in the third when the Trojans found a way back in because of Overton mistakes. Cambridge tied it up 20-20 thanks largely to five Overton errors and aces by Jalen Kent and Joslyn Holtze.
The Trojans fought off four more set points but never held a lead after winning two in a row for a 22-21 advantage. Ryan set up the fifth set point on her final kill. McCarter ended it on an assist from Ryan.
It was the first state championship in a girls sport for Overton and the third time the Eagles and Trojans did battle this season. Overton won the first matchup in September 3-1. Cambridge answered back for the subdistrict title in five sets.
--Nate Tenopir
Lincoln Southwest warms up before the Class A state volleyball title match Saturday night at the Bob Devaney Sports Center. The Silver Hawks defeated Papillion-La Vista for their first title in school history. Photo by @peterburtnett on Twitter/X.
