Grand Island Central Catholic outlasts St. Paul

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BY RON POWELL / Lincoln Journal Star

The state volleyball tournament came to Lincoln a couple months early Thursday night.

In a match more fitting for a state semifinal than a regular-season triangular, Class C-1 No. 1 Grand Island Central Catholic overcame a slow start to defeat No. 3 St. Paul 14-25, 25-19, 25-20 at the Lincoln Lutheran gym. Both teams beat the host Warriors (6-4),  as St. Paul (9-1) downed Lutheran 25-19, 25-11 and GICC (11-0) prevailed 25-15, 25-7.

“It sure felt like a state tournament match,’’ said St. Paul coach Matt Koehn, whose team is in the same district as GICC. “There were some long rallies and exciting points. I thought the quality of play was certainly at that level.”

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The Crusaders survived St. Paul’s offensive onslaught with strong serving and blocking. Central Catholic registered eight ace blocks in the last two sets. The Crusaders finished with just three ace serves, all in the third set.

But Koehn thought GICC’s serve played a major role in St. Paul’s 13 hitting errors in the final two sets. The Wildcats also missed eight serves in sets 2 and 3.

“This was our weakest passing effort this year and that’s because Central Catholic is the best serving team we’ve faced all year,” Koehn said. “They don’t overpower you, but their consistency and placement of serves wears you down and forces you into mistakes.’’

St. Paul played a near flawless first set, as 5-foot-11 senior all-state middle blocker Melanie Placke pounded six of her match-high 16 kills during that span, while teammate Kirstey Grim added four kills and an ace block. Setter Tatum Wroblewski, who finished with 35 assists, had 12 assists, two kills and two ace serves in the first set.

Since St. Paul opened the triangular against Lutheran before meeting the Crusaders in the middle match, “I thought they might come out and serve us off the court in that first set because they were warmed up,” GICC coach Sharon Zavala said. “Serving is a big part of their game, and they’re too strong and hit too hard to give them free balls back.”

Central Catholic got its five sophomore starters going in sets 2 and 3, as the Crusaders never trailed in either set. The Crusaders sprinted to an 11-5 lead in the second set and a 5-0 edge in the third.

GICC’s sophomore trio of 5-11 middle blocker Steph Brand (nine kills), 5-9 all-state outside hitter Jessica Wojcik (seven kills) and 5-7 outside hitter Liz McGowan (five kills) combined for 21 kills. Sophomore setter Bailey Baxter put up 23 assists to spark the offense.

“We had to dig and claw our way back, and that shows the maturity of our sophomores,” said Zavala, whose team has also beaten Class C-1 No. 2 Columbus Scotus and Class B No. 2 Northwest (in the GICC Invitational finals Saturday) in the past week.

“I don’t think we had our best night tonight, but we’ve had a tough stretch here and it’s difficult to maintain the high level (of play) you need against these teams.”

McGowan’s nine kills and Baxter’s 18 assists paced GICC past Lutheran. The Warriors were led by sophomore Emily Metschke’s four kills and sophomore setter Ashley Brozek’s eight assists.

Grim and Placke registered seven and six kills, respectively, in St. Paul’s win against Lutheran. Junior Katie Rathje had three kills and Brozek put up 17 assists for the Warriors.