Vianney sweeps De Smet to claim outright Metro Catholic Conference championship

Villhard’s serve midway through the third set in Vianney’s match at Metro Catholic Conference rival De Smet on Thursday barely trickled over the net and fell straight down for an ace.

“I knew it was going over, but just the next couple of serves, I was just thinking deep swings,” Villhard said.

The Vianney senior setter followed the ace by setting up Evan Paule for a kill on the next point, and true to his word, landed an ace deep on the Spartans’ side of the court on the next point to spark a crucial four-point run.

Villhard’s aces swung the momentum Vianney’s way in a 25-18, 26-24, 25-23 sweep, clinching the outright boys volleyball conference title for the Golden Griffins.

“This is our first year being MCC outright champs in a really long time,” first-year coach Jillian Hoge said.

“We've been looking forward to it.”

Andrew Kellar put down 11 kills with four aces, Paule had 10 kills and Brayden Wells added nine more for Vianney (20-1-1), No. 1 in the STLhighschoolsports.com large school rankings. Villhard had 37 assists.

Evan Strahlendorf had 16 kills for De Smet (15-5-1). Riley Massey had eight kills with eight assists and Ryker Whittle had 27 assists.

Villhard’s service run erased an early De Smet advantage in the third and gave Vianney a 17-14 lead.

“Those are some big points for sure,” Villhard said. “The whole game was a little back and forth. We needed like two aces to get going.”

A Cole Esparza spike brought the Spartans to within 23-22, but Kellar answered with a kill to give Vianney match point and a Max Stoecklein kill ended the 76-minute match.

“Big aces,” Kellar said. “Ben got us right back in the game.”

Kellar sets the tone

Vianney got off to a quick start in the first set thanks to a pair of early kills by Kellar, who put down four kills and a pair of key aces in the opener.

“It started with my passing,” Kellar said. “I started off really hot passing and then once I got to the front row, I was ready to go. Started swinging big and then it just translated back to the service line.”

Sam Dore and Paule each had three kills and a Paule block gave the Golden Griffins a 1-0 lead.

“I think our defense and our serving were great and then our blockers executed exactly what we practiced (Wednesday),” Hoge said.

Vianney holds on

Massey sparked a De Smet rally with several assists and a kill, and a kill from Strahlendorf and an Esparza block pulled the Spartans even at 23-all late in the second set after erasing an 18-11 deficit. Strahlendorf put down eight kills in the frame.

“The guys did a good job responding in the second set,” De Smet coach Tim Haffner said. “We went down pretty early and did a good job just slowly chipping away and making it tight there at the end.”

But Villhard found Wells for his fifth kill of the set and set up Kellar on set point for Vianney. Villhard had 15 assists in the frame as the Golden Griffins took a 2-0 lead.

“The other team thinks we're going pin to pin the whole game, and then once they start thinking that we only have one-on-one in the middle or no blocks on the middles so they can shine,” Villhard said.

Up next

Vianney: Plays host to Webster Groves to close out the regular season at 5:45 p.m.  Friday. The match could be a preview of the Class 1 District 2 tournament championship next week as the Golden Griffens have the top seed and the Statesmen are the No. 2 seed.

De Smet: Will play host to the winner between Clayton and Maplewood-Richmond Heights in the quarterfinals of the Class 1 District 3 tournament at 4:30 p.m. Monday. The Spartans are the top seed.