.jpg)
LINCOLN — Wynot had the unenvitable task of taking on two state champion teams in its two last games of the season.
The Lady Blue Devils disposed of last year’s D1 State Champs, Sumner-Eddyville-Miller in the district final to advance to Thursday’s Pinnacle Bank Arena first-round game, but couldn’t get past last year’s D2 state champion Overton in their Class D2 State Tournament match.
The Lady Eagles defeated the Lady Blue Devils 2517, 28-26 and 25-21 to move on to Friday’s semifinals.
“We talked in the locker room and I told them there were a lot of people who didn’t expect us to be here this year,” Wynot coach, Sidney Messersmith said. “The girls heard it too and I just told them I was really proud of the season they had and the fact we got back down here. We have no reason to hang our heads.”
After dropping the first set to Overton, the Lady Blue Devils fell behind in the second set, but rallied after trailing 8-4.
Kenna Oligmueller, who would finish with a team-high nine kills in the match, hit a pace shot in the donut of the other side of the court to make it 8-5, then Joslyn Hochstein stuffed a Lady Eagle spike at the net to make it 8-6.
“Their defense was relentless, but ours was right up there with them,” Messersmith said. “It just got kind of frustrating as we would make a good play and they would send the ball back over the net.”
Another Oligmueller winner on the back line made it 8-7 then an Overton hitting error evened the set at 8-8.
The score was tied 9-9 and 1010 until Haley Wieseler hit a winner off the net and another hitting error by the Lady Eagles, and the Lady Blue Devils were up 12-10.
After a kill by Overton, the Lady Eagles had a service error and a Wieseler ace serve made it 14-11 in favor of Wynot.
The returning champs would tie it up at 14-14 and the teams traded points until a 5-point run by Overton made it 19-15 with the Lady Blue Devils trailing.
A hitting error by the Lady Eagles, an ace serve from Jaylin Geisen and kill from Hochstein off of the Overton touch made it a 1-point set, 19-18.
A winner by Jordan Foxhoven tied the set back up at 23-23 later in the action and a hitting error by Overton gave the Lady Blue Devils their first set point, 24-23 and forced Lady Eagle coach Hayley Ryan to ask for a timeout.
After Overton got a winner off of the Wynot block which rolled along the net out of bounds to even the score at 24-24, the Lady Eagles got a winner from Daisy Ryan, who would finish with a match high 22 kills, slammed one off the block out of bounds to give her team its first set point of the second set.
Eliza Lange won a joust at the net for the Lady Blue Devils to even the set again then Wynot gained its second set point when Lange got a tip kill in the left front corner of the Overton side of the net.
Unfortunately, the lead didn’t hold and back-to-back winners from Ryan ended the set and put Overton up 2-0 in the match.
Wynot trailed by as many as seven in the third set, but came back to within 23-19 after a Foxhoven kill.
The Lady Eagles got to match point after a Wynot hitting error, but Overton made an error and Oligmueller hit her last winner of the match before Braelyn Florell hit a kill off of the Lady Blue Devil touch and down to end the match by the set final of 25-21.
Lange was second on the team with seven kills in the match, Foxhoven slammed five. Sophie Geisen tipped up 25 set assists.
“We wanted this to end differently, but you have to give them credit, the just kept coming at us,” Messersmith said.
Overton would go on to lose in the D2 semifinals to eventual state champion, Shelton in straight sets.
Wynot (21-10) 17 26 20 Overton (28-5) 25 28 25 WYNOT (kills-aces-blocks): Haley Wieseler 2-0-1; Joslyn Hochstein 6-0-4; Eliza Lange 7-0-0; Sophie Geisen 0-0-0; Kenna Oligmueller 9-1-3; Jordan Foxhoven 5-0-0; Jaylin Geisen 0-1-0. Totals 29-2-8
OVERTON (kills-aces-blocks): Braelyn Florell 9-1-0; Kyla Elfgren 1-0-1; Neveah Sauer 2-0-0; Halynn Hughes 1-0-0; Chloe Svarvari 1-0-0; Daisy Ryan 22-2-0; Elle McCarter 2-0-0; Gracen Hughes 8-1-1. Totals 46-4-2.
Set assists: Wynot 26 (S. Giesen 25, J. Geisen 1); Overton 42 (Elfgren 38, Hughes 3, Florell 1).
