Road to Repeat: Millard North 2017
After losing just two seniors from last year’s state title team, Millard North looks poised to make another state championship run in Class A this November. Millard North hadn’t won a state championship in volleyball since 1987. They had…
Access all of Prep Dig
Continue reading this article and more.
Continue ReadingAfter losing just two seniors from last year’s state title team, Millard North looks poised to make another state championship run in Class A this November.
Millard North hadn’t won a state championship in volleyball since 1987. They had advanced to the state tournament multiple times since then, but weren’t able to pull off a championship run until 2016.
Millard North Upset top seeded Papillion LaVista in five sets in the Class A state semifinals and Papillion LaVista South upset the 3 time defending state champions Omaha Marian in 5 sets in the other semifinal. Papillion LaVista South’s win against Marian helped stop Marian from winning their 4th straight class A state title.
Millard North was the No. 4 overall seed in the tournament and Papillion LaVista South was the No. 3 seed overall in the tournament. The two teams had met multiple times in conference play and in tournaments so it was definitely a great set up for a championship match. With both teams coming off five-set victories the day before, both teams wanted nothing more than to win it all after knocking off the top two seeds in the tournament.
The Papillion LaVista South Titans came out in control of the first two sets, winning them 25-15 and 25-21. Papillion LaVista South took the 2-0 lead, which meant that if Millard North wanted to win the state title they were going to have to pull of a major comeback from being down two sets.
That’s exactly what they did.
The Millard North Mustangs fired back and took the 3rd set 25-18 and the 4th set 25-21, forcing a 5th and decisive set for the class A championship. It was the last championship match of the 6 classes and it was the only final that day that went to 5 so it was by far the best championship match of the whole day. The 5th set was back and forth throughout the whole set, and both teams exchanged match points until Millard North pulled off the win 20-18 in the 5th set. Freshman setter Izzy Lukens had 47 assists, and senior super state outside hitter Elise Bauman put down 21 kills for the Mustangs in the championship match.
The Mustangs are going to have to find a new outside hitter to replace Bauman and a new right side hitter to replace Madison Johnson in their starting lineup for 2017. Millard North is already returning the rest of the team from last year’s state championship squad so if they can find new players to fill both Bauman’s and Johnson’s spots they could definitely make another run and win it all again this November.