Eastern Midlands Conference Tournament Champions

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The Eastern Midlands Conference Tournament wrapped up on Saturday, October 9th at Norris High School with the Norris Titans capturing the crown. It was their 5th straight EMC Conference Championship. The Titans had little trouble in any of their matches and really put pressure on other teams the whole day. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The Titans defeated the #3 seed Waverly Vikings 25-13 and 25-14. The Titans held Nebraska recruit [player_tooltip player_id="37528" first="Bekka" last="Allick"] to just 4 kills in the match with a -.182 hitting percentage and kept Waverly as a team hitting a .076. The Titans were led by [player_tooltip player_id="37542" first="Ella" last="Waters"] with 9 kills and [player_tooltip player_id="59203" first="Gracie" last="Kircher"] had 7. Sophomore [player_tooltip player_id="105001" first="Alivia" last="Hausmann"] had 3 ace serves and [player_tooltip player_id="37546" first="Maisie" last="Boesiger"] had 18 assists in the win. Norris really took control of the entire match and Waverly did not have an answer.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Coach Christina Boesiger said, "I couldn’t be more proud of these girls for winning Norris their fifth straight EMC Championship. This tournament had four of the top five teams in Class B and they put the pressure on every team they played. Every week and in practice we just keep advancing the drills a little bit more and they are soaking it all in. They keep working really, really hard and know that we still have a pretty high ceiling to get better. They are a very focused and goal driven group and we check in on our goals quite a bit. Our back row play has really allowed us to run a  fast offense. We have also seen a quite a bit of improvement in our blocking as well. Overall it was a fantastic day for our team, but we know it is back to work on Monday as we prepare for our last two weeks of the regular season." One of those matches is against Elkhorn North on Tuesday which gave the Titans their second loss of the season at the Pius Tournament with a  2-1 victory.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Boesiger also commented on the play of her freshman libero [player_tooltip player_id="155030" first="Anna" last="Jelinek"]. "She keeps getting better and better in each game. She’s playing great in this new role for her this year." "The three seniors had done a great job of leading our team as well and it’s been fun to see each player really adjust and settle into their role, and work hard to make our team better."</span></p> [caption id="attachment_124190" align="alignleft" width="225"]<img class="size-medium wp-image-124190" src="https://prephoops-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/pd/uploads/2020/12/ENHS-Vball-Individual-2020-Crop-225x300.jpg" alt="" width="225" height="300" /> Photo: Prep Dig[/caption] <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">In the 3rd place match Elkhorn North defeated cross town rival Elkhorn 25-14 and 25-20. [player_tooltip player_id="59201" first="Grace" last="Heaney"] had 11 kills while [player_tooltip player_id="152906" first="Ava" last="Spies"] chipped in with 8 and setter [player_tooltip player_id="109593" first="Reese" last="Booth"] had 5 kills and 2 ace serves. Elkhorn Antler’s Senior [player_tooltip player_id="58800" first="Taylor" last="Bunjer"] had 8 kills in the l</span>oss followed by [player_tooltip player_id="59213" first="Haley" last="Wolfe"] with 6. Both of these sets had some really nice rallies making for some fun volleyball! [player_tooltip player_id="152906" first="Ava" last="Spies"] played a great match and really got on a roll. She does a nice job of hitting high hands and finding the holes.</p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">In the 5th place match Bennington defeated Blair 25-6 and 25-22. The Badgers were led by [player_tooltip player_id="103080" first="Evie" last="Howard"] with 8 kills and sophomore [player_tooltip player_id="109590" first="Olivia" last="Mauch"] had 3 aces and 20 digs in the match. As a team the Badgers had 8 ace serves in the match. Sophomore [player_tooltip player_id="109590" first="Olivia" last="Mauch"] is a player that needs to be on your radar, as she has a high ceiling and does a phenomenal job in the back row. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Looking forward to seeing how things pan out for the EMC teams as we head into postseason! </span></p>