Miege beats Aquinas, wins 5A state volleyball crown

Source: The Star

Shane Keyser | The Kansas City Star

It was celebration time at the Kansas Expocentre on Saturday after Miege’s Grace Whitley (lower right) scored the winning point for the Stags against St. Thomas Aquinas and secured yet another state title.

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TOPEKA | Before taking the final serve of the match, with a chance to put rival St. Thomas Aquinas away for good, Bishop Miege senior Gabrielle Loxterman told herself she had to get it in. Closer to the net, junior Grace Whitley thought, “Stay calm, stay calm.”

After all, this was for the state championship — and the Stags knew how dangerous it was to let the Saints back into a match.

Loxterman’s serve crossed low over the net, and Aquinas’ return came right to Whitley, who promptly dropped it back over the net for the decisive point. There would be no comeback this time.

Whitley dropped to her knees and then fell backward as the celebration began.

Bishop Miege won its second consecutive volleyball state title and the 19th in program history on Saturday, defeating St. Thomas Aquinas 25-11, 29-27 in the 5A state title match at the Kansas Expocentre.

“It was like in slow motion for me,” Loxterman said of the final point. “It was amazing.”

It was the end to another successful season for the Stags, who had a few hiccups on their way back to the top.

One of those hiccups, one of their five losses, came to the Saints in October after the Stags had won the first game of a match. That was one that Miege thought it had let get away — and the team wasn’t going to let it happen again.

“We had it last time we played them,” said Whitley, in her first season at Miege after transferring from St. Teresa’s. “We just kind of let our game go down, and they stepped up their game. So it just motivated us to come out here and play all the way through.”

Added Miege coach Gwenn Pike: “We knew how they can turn it around and become a weapon.”

But after holding leads of 22-19, 24-23 and 25-24 in the second game, Aquinas couldn’t stop Miege on Saturday. Saints senior Margaret Clark came up with clutch points to twice stave off elimination. But for the second year in a row, Aquinas fell to the Stags in the state championship match.

“It’s different than last year, because I don’t know if we had the confidence to beat them last year,” Aquinas co-coach Brian Schenck said. “This year, we knew we could.”

Aquinas finished 35-5. The Saints had defeated Lansing in the semifinals, 25-22, 16-25, 25-17 to reach the finals for the fourth season in a row.

Miege started the day as strong as it finished, opening with a 25-22, 25-22 semifinal win over Topeka Seaman, which went on to defeat Lansing in the third-place match, 25-22, 25-23.

Lansing finished fourth at state for the second time in the last three seasons.

Jaguars again secondIt was an emotional ending for the Blue Valley West volleyball team, an all-too-familiar ending.

But after watching her team fall to Topeka Washburn Rural in the Kansas 6A state championship match for the fourth season in a row, Jaguars coach Terry Flynn put the moment in perspective.

“Overall, so proud,” Flynn said. “We graduated some very strong players from this team last year, and for them to make it back to the state finals was amazing. And we are blessed to be the second team in the state in 6A.”

Washburn Rural, the top seed in the tournament, claimed its fourth straight state championship with a 17-25, 25-18, 25-18 win over BV West at the Kansas Expocentre.

“We had people (who) weren’t really sure if we could do it,” BV West senior Ali Cousin said of getting back to the championship match.

“But that was our whole motive this whole year was (to) prove people wrong.”

BV West, which finished 32-12, had earned its return to the state finals with a 25-15, 25-23 semifinal win over No. 2-seed Manhattan.

BV North, meanwhile, finished fourth — its best finish since 2005. The Mustangs were defeated in the semifinals by Washburn Rural (21-25, 25-10, 25-20) and in the third-place match by Manhattan (19-25, 25-20, 25-13).

“We weren’t even supposed to be here,” BV North senior standout Chelsea Cook said.

“We were (seeded) seventh in the whole state tournament and we finished fourth, which is a good accomplishment.”

submitted by RYAN YOUNG - 2009-10-31 21:54:03