Rocks reign supreme

LINCOLN -- Their timing was impeccable.

Entering the Class C-1 2009 State Volleyball Tournament championship match, the No. 3 Scotus Central Catholic Shamrocks knew they would need a strong presence at the net against No. 1 Grand Island Central Catholic. With SCC losing all three previous times the two teams met during the season, a stout defense would be key Saturday at the NU Coliseum and the Rocks did not disappoint, defeating the Crusaders 21-25, 25-17, 25-23, 15-25, 15-12 to defend its state title.

“It’s amazing. Coming into this year we were one of the teams who didn’t have anyone coming back, and everyone else had a ton of people back,” said SCC senior outside hitter Monica Boeding, as she delightfully held the championship trophy. “We were just determined to get better, and we did it.”

The win gives the Rocks their 14th state championship and marked the eighth time the two schools have met in the final match, both which are state records.

“This is unbelievable,” said SCC coach John Petersen, who won his state-record 14th title on the 14th. “This is as good as any of them, that’s for sure.”

For most of the season, Scotus has relied on a stubborn defense that refused to back down, and Saturday’s match was no different.

Senior middle blockers Maggie Hellbusch and Katelyn Kerkman were up to the task of stopping the Crusaders’ Steph Brand, who was a constant thorn in Scotus’ side in earlier meetings. Hellbusch led the squad with four blocks, while Kerkman had two.

“Scotus saved the best for last,” GICC coach Sharon Zavala said. “It was defense versus offense and defense won out.”

With SCC clicking in every other facet of its game, the play of Hellbusch and Kerkman made all the difference.

“Maggie had a great game. She got on fire and started hitting and made some big blocks for us, so did Kerkman,” Petersen said. “The first couple times we played them we couldn’t block them. But we made some adjustments and got off the floor a little quicker. It was like we were in sand in the other games, but tonight we made blocks.”

Vindication, relief and an euphoric state were the outcome, as all the pieces came together at the right time for SCC.

“We knew we could do it as long as played at a high level,” Hellbusch said. “We needed to peak, and we knew we were peaking once we got to the state volleyball tournament.”

After losing in five sets to GICC in the Cl-4 District final, the Shamrocks had all the confidence they would need to at least play with the Crusaders from the get-go, and it showed in the first set.

The Rocks came out ready and built a 13-7 lead before the first timeout of the match. In the early going, Shamrock junior outside hitter McKenzie Leu set the pace with six kills.

But after the timeout by GICC, the momentum started to change. The Crusaders came back to tie the set at 19-all and from there went on a 6-2 run to win it.

In the second set, Scotus again came out and took an early lead, only this time it was kept. Behind Hellbusch’s run of a kill and three-straight blocks, the Shamrocks had all the momentum they would need in taking the set 25-17. Hellbusch had three of her 14 kills in the set to go with three of her four blocks.

For the match, Boeding paced the squad with 23 kills, while Leu had 13 and Lindsay McElhose had nine. Jordan Chohon had 44 set assists and two ace serves, while Laura Zach added two ace serves as well.

Tiffany Haney and Boeding each had 16 digs, while Leu added 15. Libero Andrea Odbert, Lindsay McElhose and Chohon each had 13.

Offensively, SCC didn’t change a thing, relying on its hard-hitting left side.

“Leu and Boeding are our strengths, so we obviously go to them,” Petersen said. “We don’t get as many kills out of our middles, but by God am I glad with how we blocked tonight.”

“We pretty much stuck with what we did best. We tried to cover our hits better,” Boeding said. “We just worked so hard, and I am so happy we did it.”

The third set witnessed large runs by both teams, with Scotus squeaking out the 25-23 victory. Up 14-9, SCC got swept up in an eight-point Crusader run, which in large part was due to GICC’s Liz McGowan. She had five kills in the run and a match-high 24 kills. She played her best when her squad needed it, but the Crusaders could not find her in crunch time.

“She is so athletic, and athletically she really showed up at times,” Zavala.” We needed to get the ball to her more and in good positions.”

After the GICC run, Scotus bounced back with a 10-6 run of its own to take the third set.

Down 2-1, the Crusaders came out and played in the fourth set like their life depended on it, which it did. Winning easily 25-15, Brand came back to life after having only two blocks in the third set with seven in the fourth. With another state title within its grasp, Scotus came out overconfident in the fourth set.

“I felt like after the third set we got a little too hyper,” Petersen said. “I think we felt like we would win the match after the third one, so we didn’t come out and play as well as we could have in the fourth.”

In the deciding fifth set, things got off to a shaky start for the Rocks. Brand and McGowan came out firing, with four kills between the two as GICC took an early 4-1 lead. The three-point advantage was enough for Petersen to call a timeout, which was exactly what SCC needed.

“The difference was our focus level. We knew how bad it hurt to lose last time in that fifth set, and we knew if it went five sets we needed to focus the whole entire time,” Hellbusch said. “And after we got down we regrouped, and coach Petersen made a great speech to us, and that got us back into it.”

Coming out of the timeout, the Shamrocks went on a four-point run and the momentum began to shift. Focus was key in the final set, as Scotus did not commit an error, while GICC made six �” three of which were service errors.

“We missed three serves, and we knew we were pushing for points at that point,” Zavala said. “It turned the momentum right back to them.”

With the set tied 11-all, the third service error by the Crusaders gave Scotus the lead, and Boeding followed with a kill and a block to put SCC up 14-11. After a Brand kill, Boeding found room between GICC’s block for her final high school kill, as the Rowdy Dowdies in attendance erupted with cheering and the Shamrock bench mobbed the floor.

Elated after another championship, disbelief covered Petersen’s face after realizing how far his team came during the 2009 campaign.

“At the beginning of the year, I didn’t think there was anyway this could happen,” he said. “I was just hoping we would get a wild card and make it down here, because I thought there was no chance. To think that we would beat them at some point in time is just shocking to me.”

GICC (35-1) 25 17 23 25 12

Scotus (24-5) 21 25 25 15 15

n SCOTUS (kills-ace serves-blocks) -- Monica Boeding 23-1-2, Maggie Hellbusch 14-0-4, McKenzie Leu 13-0-0, Lindsay McElhose 9-0-0, Katelyn Kerkman 4-0-2, Tiffany Haney 0-0-0, Andrea Odbert 0-0-0, Jordan Chohon 0-2-0, Laura Zach 0-2-0.

n GICC (kills-ace serves-blocks) -- Jessica Wojcik 9-1-2, Liz McGowan 24-0-0, Steph Brand 19-0-2, Jamie Partington 8-0-3, Katie Brand 4-0-0, Bailey Baxter 0-2-0.

n ASSISTS: SCC-- Chohon 44, Hellbusch 3, Haney 2, Zach 1. GICC -- Baxter 41, K. Brand 17.

n DIGS: SCC-- Haney 16, Boeding 16, Leu 15, Odbert 13, McElhose 13, Chohon 13.