Superior volleyball battles to the Nebraska State finals

The Superior Wildcat Volleyball team pushed through five sets with both Cedar Catholic (Thursday), then Bruning-Davenport-Shickley (Friday) to secure an opportunity to win the Nebraska State D-1 title on Saturday. It was the fifth time this season Lady Cats out lasted its opponent in five sets.

Reagan Meyers, a 6'2" sophomore leads the team statistically in kills, aces and digs. However veteran players Jordan Duncan - junior, Halle Bargen - senior, Mia Gardner - senior, Faith Butler - senior, Cora Schnakenberg - junior, Sadie Cornell - senior and Ava Kirchhoff - senior are multi-sport friends, who have played together for a long time. With good chemistry and intelligent plays, they defend the court - doing what needs to be done to bring home a win.

The opponent scouts had done their work. Each came to the game with plan to shut down Meyers and play into the Wildcats weakness, that's when the veteran Wildcats shown: skillfully playing their positions, methodically keeping the ball in play and making the big plays when most needed.

Wildcats versus Trojans-

Last Thursday

Cedar Catholic pressed hard with a high tempo game. Their defense was relentless. Superior lost the first set. Superior then won the second set, lost the third set and won the fourth 28-26.

Cedar Catholic continued to quicken the pace and earned points with a right side attack. But the Wildcats dominated in the race to 15 in set five. The Trojans got the first point. Superior answered with a run of six and though the Trojans got within two points, the Wildcats did not trail again. Sadie Cornel served two aces and the Wildcats picked up momentum to finish 15-8 as the Wildcat fans roared in the background.

SHS versus BDS

Friday

It was the third time this season that Bruning-Davenport-Shickley and Superior met on the volleyball court. Both times prior to the state playoffs Superior had won, but Friday's game was no push over for the Wildcats.

Every game was a battle. Both sides played great offense. There were lots of great rallies, many of them long, which challenged Superior. In set four, Superior lead 13 to 6, but the momentum swung to B-D-S with a 17-1 point run with serves from Lauryn Koch and Olivia Schlegelto make the score 23-14 in favor of B-D-S and B-D-S finished the set 25-18.

In set five, Reagan Meyers moved to the back row to serve with the score tied 5-5. Meyers, leads all Nebraska volleyball classes in kills this season. At the state tournament, opponents seemed to score more frequently when Meyers was in the back row. However, Meyers completed a 9 point serving run and Sadie Cornel finished the set with a kill.

Set points were as follows: set one – 17- 25 BDS; set two Superior 25-17; set three – Superior 25- 11; set four 18-24 BDS; and Superior 15-6.

Superior had 55 kills and BDS had 46. Superior had nine aces to BDS had one and Superior had four blocks and BDS had two. Regan Meyers had 30 kills, four aces and one block. Halle Bargen contributed eight kills, one ace and two blocks. Ava Kirchhoff added six kills. Cora Schnakenberg had five kills and 11 blocks. Jordan Duncan had two kills.

Playing for BDS were Kaitlynn Nelson – one block; Alexis Hergott, Olivia Schlegel – six kills; Luke Elting, Lauryn Koch, Kinzley Bohling Sliva - 13 kills, 1 block and Peyton Domeier

So the Lady Cats advanced to the finals to play Exeter-Milligan-Friend who had defeated number one seated (and undefeated) Southwestern in the semi-finals.

SHS versus EMF

Saturday the State Finals

It was the second time in school history for the Wildcats to advance to the finals.

Superior had defeated EMF at an opening season August jamboree. Jamborees are known to be fun matches used to get the season started.

Superior opened the game with a lead, set one was tied at 2 and 2, then again at 5. Otherwise, the teams often traded points, with the Wildcats gradually drawing away. Superior won the set 25-19.

Set two was similar. EMF completed a scoring run to tie the game at 10 and to lead until the score was tied at 14. Then the Wildcats pulled away and finished the set 25-21. Set three, Superior started strong and stayed on top, finishing 25-17.

Serving and blocks were important, but the strong defense from Superior's veteran players made the difference as their block touches and chicken-wing saves keep the ball in play. EMF was not expected to play at state, let alone knock off the number one seated Southwestern. As a younger team, spectators expect to see them at state again.

Jessican Diehl, Superior coach said,

"I'm very happy with the way we played. I thought our schedule and the bracket really set up us for success... I'm just so incredibley proud of these girls and they earned it every step of the way."

This is the second year Diehl as been the head coach for the Lady Wildcats. She is assisted by Audrey Parks and Molly McCartney. Student manages are Adi Smullins, Cashlie Corman and Kylie Meyers.