By Tony Chapman and Chris Basnett – For the Nebraska School Activities Association
The 54th Nebraska School Activities Association state volleyball championships capped a full week on Saturday with a full day of matches. Five of six matches took at least four sets with the day ending just after 10:40 P.M. on its only sweep as Papillion-LaVista South won their fifth Class A title in the past seven years.
Other champions crowned included: Norris (Class B), Milford (Class C-1), Freeman (Class C-2), Amherst (Class D-1) and Wynot (Class D-2).
CLASS A: Papillon-La Vista South wins fifth title in last seven seasons
The last match of the day at the NSAA State Volleyball Championships was the quickest.
Papillon-La Vista South swept Lincoln North Star 25-11, 25-22, 25-15 to win its second consecutive Class A state championship, and fifth title in the last seven seasons.
It was dominance all the way through for the Papio South dynasty against a North Star program playing in its first final.
“One of our best matches of the season, for sure,” Papio south coach Katie Tarman said. “For sure, it was a dominating display. They put everything that we’ve been working on together tonight, and they weren’t going to let anyone get in their way.”
After the top-seeded Navigators (32-5) served an ace on the first point of the match, Papio South scored 10 of the next 11 points to grab control, and it was largely smooth sailing the rest of the way.
Papio South (31-9) hit .312 and held North Star to .106 efficiency. The Titans had 11 ace serves to North Star’s two. They out-blocked the Gators 5-1.
And on a day when all of the previous five finals had gone at least four sets, with two of them going five, Papio South finished off its eighth state championship in just more than an hour after starting at nearly 9:30 p.m.
“Our coaches obviously help us all the way, but in the end, as a team, we always remind each other that it’s just a game,” senior Libero Kami Dyrstad said. “(We just) have so much fun with it, and enjoy the moment.”
Kambria Bails led Papio South with 12 kills. Lyric Judson had 10 kills, three ace serves, four blocks and five digs.
The loss did little to take the shine off a spectacular season for North Star.
The Gators set a school record for wins while becoming the first North Star program outside of the running sports (track and field, and cross country) to compete in a state championship game.
Of North Star’s five losses, two came to Papio South, and one came to Class B champion Norris. Elsie Schmidt had eight kills for the Gators, while Delainey Volkmer finished with seven.
The Gators reached the final by fighting off three match points and winning a reverse-sweep thriller over Omaha Westside in the state semifinals.
Meanwhile, Papio South played like it had been on the big stage plenty of times before.
“Experience always plays a big part, and it’s something we talk about a lot — trusting our training, but also trusting the experiences we’ve had here in the past and that the program has built,” Tarman said. “I feel like they’ve learned how to do things the right way, and that pays off in the end.”
Interactive MaxPreps Bracket | State Championship Stats
CLASS B: Norris goes back-to-back
After ending Omaha Skutt’s nine-year championship reign in 2024, it now seems that the Norris Titans might be the next dynasty in Class B volleyball.
On Saturday night, in front of a Husker volleyball team fresh off the airplane from completing a sweep in Minnesota, the Titans won their second straight title and completed a 38-1 season with a 25-22, 25-23, 27-29, 15-12 win over Elkhorn North. In doing so, it also avenged their only loss of the season.
“I think it’s just joy and happiness,” Norris coach Christina Boesiger said of the hard-fought win. “To be able to do this back-to-back in a year where Class B is so, so good.”
In a game that quite possibly featured the two best teams in the state this season – Norris beat Class A runner-up Lincoln North Star and Elkhorn North went 2-1 against Class A champion Papio South – the teams battled for three straight games in front of a raucous crowd.
And, both teams did it with their alphas and a Division I setter running the show. Malorie Boesiger, the coach’s daughter pledged to Nebraska, had 48 set assists for Norris. For the Wolves, Bradley commit Hayden Booth had 46 assists.
EN’s Reagan Wallraff (Creighton) and Norris’ Alli Bornschlegl (South Dakota State) each had 30 kills, but Norris was just a bit more efficient on the night hitting .240 to Elkhorn North’s .204.
“We were just blessed and lucky to be part of Class B volleyball this season,” Norris coach Christina Boesiger said. “I couldn’t be more proud of these girls for setting a goal early in the season and just working hard every day to reach that goal.
“We tried to contain Reagan just a little bit more, but we knew she would get kills on us. Really we worked more on our side and stayed in system as much as we could. When we played up there, they had us out of system.”
The biggest lead in game one was three points, and Norris pulled away from a 14-14 tie to grasp the set with a 4-1 run to lead 18-15. Bornshlegl slammed two kills around two EN errors in the spurt.
The Wolves then sprinted to a 7-2 lead in game two, before Norris battled back to tie it at 12. Then, North had leads of 18-15 and 20-17 before the Titans battled back. Bornschlegl had three straight kills to tie at 21 and then two more kills and a block from London Meints helped end game two.
Game three had it all.
The Titans jumped to a 7-3 lead before Wallraff willed the Wolves back. She rattled off a 7-point service run that had three Norris attack errors to give North an 11-7 lead. Elkhorn North fought off two match points for Norris and scored the last three on two kills from Wallraff and a Norris error to stay alive.
“We just told them to refocus a little bit,” coach Boesiger said. “We jumped out to a good lead in set three and built a lead right away and had our opportunities. We made it an emphasis to say you have won nothing yet, just keep building one point at a time.
“I could see the look in their eyes.”
Norris never trailed in the decisive fourth set.
“It’s an amazing feeling,” Bornshlegl said. “I think last year, no one expected us to win and when we did it really carried over into this season. We know, now, that we can really do anything.”
With just two seniors, Norris might be back for more. Another Class B volleyball dynasty at hand.
Interactive MaxPreps Bracket | State Championship Stats
CLASS C-1: Rautenberg powers Milford to first state championship
Cinderella never had to deal with Shayla Rautenberg.
The sensational Milford sophomore had 30 kills, 17 digs, four ace serves and four blocks to lift the Eagles to a 25-13, 16-25, 25-15, 25-19 in the Class C-1 state championship match.
The title is the first in any girls sport in Milford school history.
“It’s so special. The environment here is unreal,” said Rautenberg, whose mother, Lisa (Reitsman) Rautenberg, was three-time All-American for Nebraska volleyball in the mid-1990s. “It was just a crazy day.”
Rautenberg had 67 kills in three state tournament matches, and saved her best for last Saturday. The 6-foot-3 phenom hit .407 on 59 total attacks, and had eight kills apiece in the first, third, and fourth sets.
“Not everybody has a Shayla,” Milford senior Sydney Burkey said. “And not everybody has such a tight-knit community. There’s a lot of pressure on us, for sure. But I think all that pressure really builds us and keeps us stronger.”
Burkey had eight kills and two blocks for the Eagles (33-1) with Braelynn Muller added seven kills and three aces. Senior setter Kylie Jakub dished out 42 set assists.
“Something we really talked about this year is being grounded, giving each other grace, being grateful for where we’re at,” Jakub said. “We just focused on where we were, because we knew it was a process and not an outcome we had to get to.”
Holdrege, the No. 3 seed in its own subdistrict, the No. 12 seed of 16 teams in district play, and the No. 8 seed at state, was also playing for its first volleyball title. Both of the C-1 finalists picked up their first-ever state tournament wins this weekend.
With a raucous crowd cheering them on, the Dusters rallied from a slow start to win the second set 25-16. Holdrege (24-10) tied the fourth set at 12 before Milford scored seven of the next nine points to regain control. That match-deciding run started with, you guessed it, a Rautenberg kill out of the back row.
Holdrege’s No. 3 seed in subdistricts comes with an asterisk: three of the C-1 state semifinalists (Malcolm was the other) were in that same C1-7 group.
“I knew Holdrege would come out strong,” Milford coach Emily Restau said. “We usually see the best in every opponent that we have, and then them being the underdogs and having an amazing state tournament. We just knew that we were going to get the best from them.”
Emily Stutzman led Holdrege with 17 kills and 10 digs. Carson Sundquist added 13 kills and 21 digs, while Gracie Johnson finished with 10 kills.
Interactive MaxPreps Bracket | State Championship Stats
CLASS C-2: Freeman Flies To Fourth State Title
Lexi Holland and her Freeman Falcons knew this summer that Class C-2 might be a dogfight in volleyball. Four months later, the state tournament proved them right.
Freeman, which entered the tournament as the fourth-seed, was the highest to survive the opening round. They capped a run to the title on Saturday afternoon with a 25-23, 16-25, 25-18, 29-27 win over Laurel-Concord-Coleridge in the championship final.
At Top-10 Camp this summer in Kearney, Holland said each match was tight.
“I think top-10 camp was an eye-opening experience for us this year,” said Holland, who played for the Falcons on their last state championship team in 2014. “We were playing the teams who made it to state and everyone was going 1-1 against each other.
“We knew right then that C-2 was going to be anyone’s game.”
On Saturday afternoon, the Falcons (29-4) won the important late points in the first and fourth sets to escape with the title. There was no better evidence than in the deciding fourth set.
Down 22-21, Freeman got two aces and a kill from Alicia Johansen to take a 24-24 lead before LCC fought for their lives. They battled to a 25-24 lead on a pair of kills by Rena Rasmussen. The teams were tied again at 25, 26 and 27. It was that kind of match – the fourth set alone featured 14 ties and seven lead changes.
Off Reagan Rinne’s serve, Johansen ended the match on her 19th kill of the contest.
“It was just so surreal,” Johansen said. “I was so happy, I just went down to the ground. To have that moment and for my teammates to have my back and all be behind me was just amazing.”
After a 25-23 win in set one, Freeman was off in the second as the Bears roared to a 25-16 win off a blistering .438 hitting percentage. Rasmussen and Kaida Eriksen each had four kills and LCC held Freeman to .026 attacking.
But, the Falcons reset. They controlled the third set 25-18 and broke it open when Johansen hammered a kill for an 11-9 and then went to the service line and scored four points in a row for a 15-9 lead and LCC was never within six again.
“We weren’t in a ‘lose situation’,” Holland said, “and so we just reminded them to stay calm and play our game, keep reading the fast ball and you’ll be fine.”
Rinne added 13 kills for the Falcons with Addison Kastanek added 33 serve receptions and 19 digs for the Falcon defense. The Bears, who finished 33-4, got 17 kills from Rasmussen and 15 from Eriksen.
Interactive MaxPreps Bracket | State Championship Stats
CLASS D-1: Amherst rallies past conference rival Overton to win first championship
The first state championship in school history was going to take some work. Maybe a little more work than Amherst was hoping.
But the Broncos were fine with working overtime Saturday, overcoming a 2-0 deficit and fighting off two match points in the fourth set to beat Overton 20-25, 17-25, 25-11, 26-24, 15-11 to win the Class D-1 state championship.
“Let’s challenge the kids to play from the heart,” Amherst coach Jonie Fader said of her message to her team after falling behind two sets to none.
“What kind of feeling did they want to have at the end of the day, and really giving them full possession of that piece of it… Just let them know that we believe in them so much. They’re a phenomenal group of kids. And they did it.”
Junior Libby Mitchell had 19 kills and three blocks for Amherst (28-5), including 10 kills in the third set Amherst won 25-11 to stay alive.
“I just kind of stopped, and I took a deep breath, and I just knew to leave it all on the court right here, because I knew I didn’t want to leave this game with any regrets, because it would bite me forever,” Mitchell said. “I’ve got nothing to lose; I’m just going to go out and swing, trust my teammates and do it for them, because we want this so bad.”
The championship was the first for Amherst in any girls sport in the history of a school with a rich athletic tradition. That it came against a Fort Kearny conference opponent, one the Broncos had already beaten three times this season, made the accomplishment even sweeter.
“It’s not something we necessarily talked about, but we were aware of it,” said junior Sadie Van Ranken, who finished with 12 kills.
The team’s only senior, Mackenzie Cochran was a sophomore on the Amherst team that lost to another Fort Kearny Conference squad, S-E-M, in the 2023 D-1 championship game.
“We knew the feeling of losing, and did not want to feel it again,” Cochrane said.
Then her teammate chimed in.
“We let the pain of loss drive us to the joy we feel today,” Mitchell said.
Overton dominated the first two sets to the point that seniors Daisy Ryan and Gracen Hughes had combined for 19 kills while Amherst had 18 as a team.
And leading 24-22 in the fourth set, it looked like the Eagles would add a second championship to go with their 2023 Class D-2 title.
But a Van Ranken kill and an Overton hitting error started a set-ending 4-0 run. Overton’s last lead in the fifth set came at 2-1. Overton finished the season 28-6, with four losses to Amherst. The Eagles were the only team this season to push the Broncos to a fifth set, doing so twice.
Overton finished in the top four at state for the sixth time in the last seven seasons. Ryan had 23 kills for the Eagles while Hughes finished with 20.
Interactive MaxPreps Bracket | State Championship Stats
CLASS D-2: Wynot Wins First State Title
Wynot has been known for their small town girls basketball prowess. But, now, with long-time coach Steve Wieseler’s son, Tristan, leading the volleyball program there is a first state title in school history for the Blue Devil volleyball program.
With dad coaching the girls basketball team, Wiesler’s mom, Tammy, led the girls program for many years leading the Blue Devils to the state title game in 2016. On Saturday morning his Blue Devils knocked off Cambridge 19-25, 25-21, 25-16, 25-15, 15-5.
“They have been very supportive of me,” Tristan said, “but really all of the girls. They are at all of the game. And, growing up since I was three years old I was just kind of around it for many years. Having them in my corner and having an example to go off of has been beneficial for all of us.
“It’s allowed these girls to have success, too.”
Enough of the coach, though, his players were the ones that came through when they were down 2-1 after Cambridge dominated in a 25-16 third set win. In the fourth set, the Blue Devils served four aces and senior Kenna Oligmeuller had six of her 25 kills as they seized momentum 25-17.
Oligmueller was then asking for the ball in the deciding fifth set. She had every Wynot kill – nine in total – as the Devils stormed the court on a Cambridge hitting error. Down 3-1 to start the set, libero Jaylin Geiser served a 7-point service run.
“We knew that it was now or never,” Oligmueller said. “We went out in the fifth set and knew they were going to fire at us and we had to fire right back. I just told my setter, ‘keep feeding me.’ They were giving me the line, so I took it.”
Hayley Wiesler, who finished with 42 assists, happily obliged.
Cambridge, in their fifth state title game, was runner-up for a fourth time. They also finished second in 2023. Brooklyn Holtz (22), Mallory Springer (21) and Joslyn Holtz (16) had 59 of the 60 Trojans kills. Cambridge out swung Wynot 202-149, but the Devils countered with 11 blocks and 85 digs.
“It has kind of been that way all year for us,” Tristan Wieseler said of the attack discrepancy. “We try to be as efficient as we can in the front row and just get a whole bunch of digs. Our defense and block really showed up today.”
Wynot finished their championship season 31-4.
Interactive MaxPreps Bracket | State Championship Stats
Tony Chapman is a freelance writer based in Grand Island. He has written for multiple Nebraska daily and weekly newspapers. His weekly Harvest Sports Newsletter covers a wide variety of Nebraska prep sports.
Chris Basnett is a freelance writer based in Lincoln. He has covered prep and college sports for more than 20 years and most recently was the assistant sports editor at the Lincoln Journal Star. He currently provides content for the Harvest Sports Newsletter.