Strafford senior Madison Bowles was using every inch of her 6-1 frame to swing her left arm from the right post to rain kills down on St. Pius X in the first set of the Class 2 state volleyball championship.
The Indians (31-5-1) beat the Lancers 25-23 in the first game and looked to unseat St. Pius as the state champions on Saturday at the Show Me Center in Cape Girardeau. But the Lancers (25-8) made an adjustment to Bowles’ spikes, St. Pius senior middle hitter Emma Grimshaw took over the middle of the net and the Lancers repeated as state champions by winning the next two games 25-8, 25-22.
Shannon Leftridge inherited nine seniors from former head coach Dustin Cutts when she took over at St. Pius this season. Leftridge guided the Lancers to their third straight trip to a state final – they beat Hermann in two sets last year and lost to Villa Duchesne in the Class 3 championship in 2015.
“We had a strategic plan for (Bowles),” Leftridge said. “You go up late on the block when you’ve got somebody with a reach that high, especially a lefty. We tried to meet the ball as it was coming down.”
After dominating the second set, the Lancers looked like they were going to run away to the title in the third set by taking a 5-0 lead. But the Indians rallied and just as quickly they led 10-9. The Class 2 championship would be a dogfight the rest of the way.
An ace by Strafford senior Emma Webb gave the Indians a 12-9 lead and capped a 6-0 run. St. Pius senior Lindsey Rich served up an ace to tie the match 12-12. Rich had another ace in the third set.
“I try to hit the ball hard and try not to serve at the libero,” Rich said. “Serving deeper against them helped a lot.
“We knew during the third set they would come back and it would a hard-fought battle but we knew we could do it.”
Sophomore Madylin Wiertzema blocked senior Kaylee Portell’s shot for St. Pius and the Indians trailed 16-14. A net violation and unforced error led to two more points for the Lancers, but junior Allisann Nichols served an ace and Portell hit long and the St. Pius margin of victory was back at a point.
Strafford couldn’t tie the match after serving into the net, and Grimshaw fooled the Indians with a tip at the middle of the net to give the Lancers a 20-17 edge. Bowles scored from the right side and St. Pius sophomore Caly Otec served into the net and the Indians trailed 20-19. The two teams traded points with service errors, and when Grimshaw’s volley went wide, the third set was tied 21-21.
But not for long.
“We were ready to win that (second) game,” Grimshaw said. “I knew we would win (the third set). It wasn’t a maybe.”
A Grimshaw kill made it 22-21. Then Grimshaw and senior Carley Nicholson threw up a block for a point on senior Chloe Rear’s shot and the Lancers were two points from the title. Nicholson set senior Trish Gaylord for a kill and a 24-22 St. Pius lead. And Nicholson finished off the Indians when she shoved the ball over the net to a hole in the middle of the Strafford side of the court for the match-winning point.
“I can’t believe we just won,” Gaylord said as the Lancers and their families and friends gathered in a meeting room inside the arena. “It’s very exciting to win two years in a row. We knew we needed to come out stronger and hit them hard. We do run our middles a lot and it’s great to run both sides.”
For Grimshaw and Rich, it was their final volleyball match. Neither will play the sport in college as they focus on their education. Grimshaw said she’s going to nursing school.
“She comes from a volleyball family, but Emma wants to focus on nursing,” Leftridge said. “And that’s a tough road to take, to focus on volleyball and nursing. That’s what she wants to do and everyone is 100 percent supportive of her decision.”
The Lancers were champions by noon, but Leftridge wasn’t done with volleyball for the day. Her daughter, Amy Leftridge, is a sophomore at Mineral Area College. The undefeated Cardinals played Jefferson College in the Region 16 championship on Saturday in Hillsboro. Shannon drove straight from Cape Girardeau to the match.
With the loss of so many seniors, Leftridge knows it will be a challenge to win a third state title in as many years.
“Our senior leadership group will get smaller, but they’re still experienced players,” Leftridge said. “We practice hard and I think we’ll be fine next year.”
In the Class 2 third-place match, Hermann (30-6-1) beat St. Michael the Archangel (18-15-2) 25-17, 25-10. Hermann head coach Linda Lampkin surpassed 900 career wins this season with the Bearcats.