Millard North, Lincoln Southwest Claim Conference Titles

Berk Brown

October 27, 2017 @ 08:03 AM

Photo credit: Lincoln Southwest Athletics PAPILLION - Don’t throw dirt on the defending Class A champions just yet. Millard North, which won the state tournament last fall as the #5 seed, came through as champions again Thursday night as a #5 seed - this time at the Metro Conference tourney. The Mustangs, 23-12, defeated the defending Metro champs Papillion-LaVista 28-26, 22-25, 25-23, 25-21 to win the title. Millard North knocked off Papillion-LaVista South, Omaha Marian and the Monarchs in a span of roughly 24 hours to head into district play on a roll. “I feel like the snowball we’ve created momentum wise has continued to roll,” Millard North coach Lindsay Peterson said. “I felt like that’s been there all year long, that they are that good. Sometimes, it doesn’t happen right off the bat. Some teams need time to work on things and get better at things and when that comes together at the end of the year, that’s the best time. I’m extremely proud of what they’ve been able to do.” The road Millard North finds itself on now is similar to the path it took last year. Last fall the Mustangs were 16-9 heading into the last two weeks of the regular season before winning 11 of their last 13 en route to the state championship. This year, the Mustangs found themselves at 15-10 prior to a road match at Millard West two weeks ago. Millard North won that match in five sets, which started the Mustangs on their current run of winning eight of their last 10. Junior outside hitter Paige Holdsworth had a career-high 18 kills for the Mustangs while Allie Kerns had 13 and McKenna Ruch had 12. Eve Fountain finished the night with nine kills, five aces and 22 digs and Emmy Grant had four kills and five blocks. Madison Evans finished with a team-best 24 digs while Emma Altman had 11 digs and two aces. Izzy Lukens finished with 55 assists and four kills. For Papillion-LaVista, Chloe Paschal had 19 kills and two ace serves while Norah Sis had 13 kills and Sydney Fitzgibbons had eight. Lincoln Southwest def. Lincoln Southeast 25-18, 25-15, 25-22 Lincoln Southwest won its third-straight Heartland Athletic Conference title with a sweep of Lincoln Southeast. Jaden Ferguson had 15 kills to pace the Silver Hawks while Paige Silverberg had six. Katie Siefkes had a match-high 21 digs for Southwest and Rachel Walker finished with 23 assists, nine digs and five kills. For Lincoln Southeast, Melanie Brecka had 11 kills and Cecily Liphardt had seven. Brecka also added three aces and 15 digs while Maddie Renn had 17 digs and Cassidy Plooster had 26 assists and 13 digs.