SEM, Mullen, and Ansley/Litchfield will begin play today at the NSAA state volleyball championships in Lincoln.
SEM and Mullen will each play in the morning session today at Pinnacle Bank Arena.
SEM is the #2 seed in the D2 tournament and will open against the #7 seed Bruning Davenport Shickley at 9 a.m. SEM is now 26-6 on the season and advanced to state with a 3-1 win over Silver Lake in the D2-2 district championship. SEM head coach Erika Kappel visited with KCNI/KBBN sports this week and talked about the excitement of winning a district title and qualifying for state.
“Oh yeah, for sure. We got a wild card last year and then ended up losing in the district final last year. The girls were really looking for some redemption. They worked really hard to get that number two seed and get to play at home. That was kind of nice. Silver Lake definitely gave us a run for our money, especially that first and second set. Their libero was outstanding. She didn’t let anything hit the floor. Unforced errors were kind of working against us there, but we cleaned things up and our freshmen really stepped up there in the last two.”
INTERVIEW WITH COACH KAPPEL
Mullen is the #6 seed in the D2 tournament and will open against the #3 seed Cambridge at 11 a.m. Mullen is now 20-10 on the season and advanced to state with a straight set win over Archangels Catholic in the D2-7 district championship. Mullen head coach Nichole Ourada visited with KCNI/KBBN sports this week and shared how her team’s mental toughness has improved during the course of the season.
“Every season doesn’t go without struggles. When we hit mid-season, I would say, there was a point where we were struggling a little bit just to stay in games mentally. If somebody would maybe have a little bit off-game, it took a little bit for the rest of the crew to pick everybody up, too. We talked through that after every game. We talked about how, even during losses, there’s something to learn from it, and what can we learn from it, and how can we get better. I think the biggest growth that I’ve seen from our girls is just the mental toughness that they’ve showed. We talked about their days where you don’t feel like showing up to play. You don’t feel like you’ve got 100 other things going on, and other things on your mind. But it comes down to discipline. Are you going to fall back on that, or how are you going to handle this adversity going forward. I think the biggest growth I’ve seen in our girls is just relying on that and the ability for them to trust each other through it all and help each other in those types of struggles. They’ve really shown up and came to play.
The winners of the SEM vs BDS and Mullen vs Cambridge matches will face each other in the semifinals on Friday.
INTERVIEW WITH COACH OURADA
Ansley/Litchfield will compete in the Class D1 tournament today. Ansley/Litchfield is the #5 seed in the D1 tournament and will face #4 seed Exeter Milligan Friend today at 3 p.m. at Pinnacle Bank Arena. The Lady Spartans are 25-6 on the season and qualified for state with a straight set victory over Maywood Hayes Center in the D1-7 district championship. Ansley/Litchfield head coach Jamee Smith visited with KCNI/KBBN sports this week and shared the keys for Ansley/Litchfield to have success at this year’s tournament.
“I think first and foremost is not being overwhelmed at the situation. Even I’m probably going to be a little overwhelmed. I’ve never been to state as a head coach, so it’s exciting. But we kind of have to do the whole Hoosiers thing. It’s courts the same size. Everything’s the same size. It’s just a little bit bigger arena. But I think once we settle down, communication and moving, serving hard will be big keys for us to be successful.”
The winner of the A/L vs EMF match will advance to the state semifinals on Friday to face the winner of Amherst vs Cross County.
All SEM, Mullen, and Ansley/Litchfield matches from the state tournament will be broadcast on KBBN 95.3 FM and kbbn.com.
INTERVIEW WITH COACH SMITH
