Pius X repeats as Class B champs

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BY RON POWELL / Lincoln Journal Star

The Northwest scouting report for the Class B state volleyball championship match against Lincoln Pius X probably began with one word — trouble.

“I watched them (the Thunderbolts) play last night against (Omaha) Gross, and I thought, ‘Oh, my gosh,’” Northwest coach Diane Rouzee said. “I felt we’d have to play way over our heads to beat them.”

Sure enough, the second-ranked Thunderbolts brought their A game to Pershing Center on Saturday night against the No. 1 Vikings. It was the same team that beat Class A state champion Papillion-La Vista twice in the regular season and took out Class A runner-up Grand Island as well.

Pius X executed near flawlessly in games one and two, then held off Northwest in a furious third game to claim a 25-14, 25-20, 30-28 victory before an energetic crowd of approximately 3,500. With the win, the Thunderbolts (35-4) closed out their second straight Class B state title and their fifth overall under coach Jake Moore.

“They were hitting on all cylinders in the first two games,’’ said Rouzee, whose 32-4 Vikings were 2-2 against Pius X this season. “They played like I was afraid they’d play.”

Northwest toppled Pius X in four games in a dual in Grand Island Oct. 23, a match that knocked the Thunderbolts from the No. 1 spot in the rankings for the first time in two years. That loss provided the motivation, and the Thunderbolts’ passing and defense did the rest, giving Super-State junior setter Lauren Cook plenty of options feeding a net attack that slammed 65 kills in three games.

Senior outside hitter Leigh Connot led a floor-sweeping Pius X defense with 23 digs.

“We completely changed our defense from the last time we played them and Leigh Connot and Natalie Braun just got dig after dig from the right side,’’ Moore said. “We worked so much on defensive pursuit this season, and it was nice to see it all come together at the end. This was exactly what we did in the finals last year (a four-game win against Omaha Gross), our defense really picked up.”

A balanced attack propelled Pius X to big leads in each of the first two games — 20-9 in the first one and 19-10 in the second — as five attackers had four or more kills during that span. Junior outside hitter Natalie Braun led the Bolts with 15 kills, senior middle Kellie Holtmeier pounded 12 and Mollie Lacy, a senior middle, added 11 kills.

“We came out fired up and played our best volleyball of the season. We left it all on the court tonight,” said Cook, who put up 49 assists and added nine dump kills. “Our defense was great and the passes were perfect. That makes it easy to distribute the ball from pin to pin and find the single block.’’

Northwest refused to go away quietly in game three, getting its offense cranked up with stronger serving and better defense. The Vikings ran off the first four points and led early, but Pius X battled back to eventually take the lead 15-14 on a left-side kill from Connot.

A left-side termination by Braun gave the Thunderbolts championship point at 24-22, but two straight Pius X net violations kept Northwest alive. The Vikings saved two more match points at 25-24 on a Shayna Schacher kill and at 27-26 on a Taylor Johnson ace block.

Schacher paced Northwest with 13 kills. Jenna Rouzee, the coach’s daughter, had nine kills, three ace blocks and 16 assists.

Northwest also had two game points of its own ahead 26-25 and 28-27. A Lacy kill off a slide play erased the first, then Holtmeier did the same four points later on another slide. Holtmeier won a joust at the net to give Pius X a 29-28 lead, and right-side senior lefty Hannah Zimmerman ended it with a kill off a back set from Cook.

“I got a little worried there that third game,’’ Lacy said. “Northwest made us work for it, but we stuck in there and got it done.’’

Unlike last year, when Pius X lost just one match to Class B competition, the Thunderbolts lost three times to teams in their class this season — two to Northwest and another to third-ranked Omaha Skutt.

“It was a very strange ride,” Moore said. “We never talked about it, but there was a ton of pressure on us because we had so many people back from last year. I know the girls said the chemistry was definitely different this year, but it all came together at the end.”

Reach Ron Powell at 473-7437 or rpowell@journalstar.com.