Mater Dei moves one victory from defending Class 2A girls volleyball state title

The Knights rank third in Illinois history with eight state championships, including last year’s, but the pursuit of their ninth became a tense semifinal struggle Friday afternoon against first-time state tournament participant El Paso-Gridley.

Until it wasn’t.

Mater Dei swept El Paso-Gridley 25-16, 25-17 at Illinois State University, winning the final 10 points of the opening set after falling behind 16-15. The run became 14 points as Mater Dei rolled in a second set much less competitive than the first.

“I think we were definitely nervous,” Knights junior setter Addison Nenninger said. “We have a lot of younger kids who haven’t been here, so I think just getting our nerves out really helped us come back, and I think our blocking came around a lot.”

The Knights (37-3) advanced to face Bloomington Central Catholic (35-4) at 1:55 p.m. Saturday in the title match. Central Catholic, which won its only state title in 2015, swept Elmhurst Timothy Christian 25-21, 25-16 in the opening semifinal, ending Timothy Christian’s 38-match win streak in the process.

Mater Dei’s balance made the biggest difference, and Nenninger was a big part of that. She tied for a team-high five kills — three times scoring on second-ball attacks — along with senior outside hitter Avery Wuebbels, along with providing 17 assists and recording a team-high 2.5 blocks.

“She does great for us,” first-year Mater Dei head coach Cortney Walker said. “I mean, we can’t ask anything more out of her. She takes care of balls at the net, she hits the ball where we want it, she gets it to the right hitter at the right time. The kind of things you can’t teach.”

Ella Diercks, Avery Patton and St. Louis University basketball signee Alyssa Koerkenmeier had four kills each for the Knights, who only had five hitting errors on 54 attempts. Senior libero Addie Lampe had 11 digs.

The Titans (31-8), who last lost Sept. 30, had an 18-match win streak snapped. They were led by senior Aubrey Phillips’ match-high 13 kills and junior Taylor Langland’s 13 assists but also had 16 attacking errors.

“Once our (opposite) blockers kind of figured out they were trying to hit line a lot, we got out there, we pushed the ball back over,” Walker said. “That definitely gave us some momentum, and our serving, keeping them out of system, helped.”

El Paso-Gridley looked to be in control when it took a 16-15 lead in the opening set with a three-point run that included two kills by Phillips. But an attacking error sent Mater Dei junior Lauren Jamruk to the service line, and that’s how the set finished.

Jamruk’s nine-point run included two service aces, two kills by Patton, one kill each by sophomore Marlie Haag and Wuebbels and two blocks. Nenninger and Haag combined on the first block, a tone changer that put Mater Dei ahead 18-16, and the second was by Wuebbels and Patton for a 23-16 lead out of the Titans’ second timeout.

To start the second set, Koerkenmeier and Nenninger combined for two blocks and each had a kill for a 4-0 lead and El Paso-Gridley never got closer than three points the rest of the way.

“I think it was a good match, it was probably what we expected,” Walker said. “We kind of did the same thing last year. The girls that haven’t been here, you expect those nerves. I think the match (Friday) was what we expected it to be.”

The Knights have repeated as champions as often as they haven’t, winning three in a row from 1993-95 and back-to-back in 2010-11 to go along with titles in 1987, 2001 and last season.

Retaining the crown has been a motivating factor — perhaps on both sides of the net.

“It definitely helps us,” Nenninger said. “I think in the back our minds, we’re like we need to defend our title, but I think also with being state champs, teams come after us a lot harder. We just need to take that and work harder and push.”

Lampe, Koerkenmeier and Diercks are seniors in their third state tournament — the Knights finished fourth when they were freshman in 2021 — and Wuebbels is a returning senior from last season’s squad. Diercks signed Wednesday with Truman State.

Other returning players from the 2023 title team are Nenninger, sophomore Ava Lampe and Jamruk, while freshmen Abby Kuhl and Hailey Klostermann made their state tournament debuts along with Patton and Haag.

“It’s a really good feeling playing with these girls,” said Addie Lampe, who signed Wednesday to continue her career at Lewis University. “All these girls, it’s like a family out there, and we’ve built such good relationships throughout the whole year, through our ups and downs. It’s really an accomplishment to be here with them.”