The College Heights Christian Cougars will play for their third district championship in a row after their 3-0 win (25-19, 25-10, 25-15) on Saturday against McAuley Catholic in the Class 1 District 11 semifinals at the Thomas Jefferson Fieldhouse.
Second-seeded College Heights improved to 23-9-2 on the season entering Tuesday’s district title match against top-seeded Jasper (24-8-3).
Jasper defeated Liberal 3-0 (25-20, 25-10, 25-9) in the first semifinal match Saturday.
College Heights started out a little bit slow Saturday, but the Cougars found a rhythm late in the first set that carried over into the second and third sets.
“It was a super fun match,” College Heights coach Mary Colin said. “I thought the girls played really good. Three of them took the ACT (Saturday), so we kept joking that their brains, they came in mentally fatigued. They weren’t as energetically hyped as normal, but I thought they were still very consistent and serious about getting the job done.
“There were a couple mishits at first, which I like to blame on the vision of being in an ACT and your eyes are so tired. After that, for sure, we started getting some rhythm.”
College Heights used a 4-0 run late in a tight first set to go ahead 24-18 and the Cougars closed it out 25-19 after exchanging side-outs with the Warriors.
College Heights started out slow in the second but put together a few scoring runs — highlighted by a 7-0 early in the set that put the Cougars into the lead and a 5-0 that gave them a lead by 10 points at 18-8 — that produced a 25-10 set for the Cougars.
College Heights again saw McAuley Catholic take an early lead in the third, but the Cougars finished it off 25-15 with 5-0 and 3-0 runs giving them the lead for good at 5-3 and 8-4.
Maddy Colin finished the match with six kills, 23 assists, six digs and one ace, Addie Lawrence added 14 kills, Lauren Ukena picked up four kills, nine digs and three aces, Libby Fanning had two kills and two blocks, Lindsay Griesemer had 10 digs, Marley Woodford made four kills, Ava Masena made 10 digs and served two aces, Katie Moss had one assist and two digs, and Lilly Plassman added one assist and four digs.
The five-match stretch in late September and early October that College Heights played without Lawrence has benefited the Cougars after her return to the lineup Oct. 6 in their conference match against McAuley Catholic.
“For sure, Addie gets a lot of reps and when she was gone, the other girls got a lot of reps,” Coach Colin said. “I think there was one match when Lauren got set 77 times and Lindsay got set 60 times, so they went from maybe 25 touches to a whole lot more touches. I would definitely say the entire team improved offensively while she was gone because they were getting more touches. Now, she’s back and they’re still stepping up.
“I thought they all played really good today, and we had all to do something special in this moment. Like there was this one ball, I call it Plinko when it hits the ceiling, and it dinks around and Maddy’s coming, and she couldn’t get to it. At the last second, she yelled help and there were two girls waiting on it. That’s good teamwork.”
College Heights and Jasper have become familiar opponents during the past two seasons.
Tuesday marks their fourth match of this season with Jasper winning two of three against College Heights in matches played within a two-week stretch in September.
Jasper defeated College Heights 2-0 in the Jasper and the Lamar tournaments, while College Heights won a regular match in five sets on Jasper’s home court.
Last season, College Heights took all three matches against Jasper, including a five-set match for the Class 1 District 9 championship.
“Jasper’s so good,” Coach Colin said. “So good. They are fun to watch. They are solid all the way around. It’s going to be a great match. It is going to be kill for kill, and both teams are going to be in it to win it. It’s going to be a fun match.”
McAuley Catholic, meanwhile, finishes the season 21-15-2 overall, and the Warriors tripled their wins total from the previous 7-18-1 season.
The Warriors’ 21 wins this season are their most since the 24-win district championship team in 2018.
“I wish that we would have gone at least four, at least taken one game from College Heights,” McAuley Catholic coach Sarah Nangle said. “It would have been fun. Honestly, I’m not at all upset with my girls. I thought they battled hard, especially having to deal with losing our libero (senior JoJo Wheeler) in that third set. It forced them to come together.
“I’m proud of them. We’ve had a great season, better than last year, and it stinks the seniors went out the way they did not being able to make it any farther, but I’m excited and hopeful for next season already.”
Wheeler and fellow senior Lily Black each played their final matches for the Warriors.
THOMAS JEFFERSON FALLS TO LIBERAL IN QUARTERS
Thomas Jefferson’s season came to an end in the Class 1 District 11 quarterfinal round on Friday when the fifth-seeded Cavaliers lost 25-11, 11-25, 25-21, 16-25 and 15-12 in a five-set thriller.
Thomas Jefferson closes the year with a 12-17-1 record.
Lannah Grigg led the way with 18 kills, 17 digs, seven aces, three blocks and two assists, while Macie Shifferd had 13 digs, four kills, two assists and an ace. Mary Nguyen finished with 13 digs, 12 assists, three kills and an ace, while Nico Carlson had 20 digs, six kills and four assists. Gabbi Hiebert had five kills, six digs, two assists and a block. Marley Flanagan had four digs, with Alexis Stamps adding seven digs, two kill, five assists and three aces. Maggie Sutton had 13 digs and two aces, while Yasmina Mokhtar had six digs.
