The NSAA state volleyball championships continue today in Lincoln. Quarterfinal matches in classes C2, D1, and D2 will be played today at Pinnacle Bank Arena. Taking the court today will be area participants Mullen and Sandhills/Thedford.
The Mullen Lady Broncos are making their second consecutive appearance at the state tournament after qualifying last season. Mullen is 30-2 on the season and enters as the #2 seed in the Class D2 field. Mullen advanced to the state tournament by claiming the D2-2 district championship winning against conference rival Twin Loup in the district final. Mullen senior setter Kalli Licking has over 800 assists this season and has over 2,000 for her career. Mullen has four players with over 175 kills this season led by Jenna Donohoe with a team high 321. Mullen head coach Nichole Ourada visited with KCNI/KBBN sports about the chemistry that has developed between setter and attacker.
“Kalli does a really nice job of leading a balanced attack for us. She is very good at reading the blockers across the net and is able to push the ball away from where the blockers are trending to go. We do a really nice job of establishing our middles right away. So the blockers on the other side tend to follow them and so it leaves our pin hitters open as well. The connection that setters and hitters have is something that we work on every day. I think that’s evidenced in how we play and just the chemistry that these girls have together. They know where they’re gonna be, at what time, and what attack they’re going to be running. I think it shows that they’ve been playing together since they were third and fourth graders. Just their chemistry is off the charts.”
Mullen will open tournament play against the #7 Wilcox-Hildreth. Wilcox-Hildreth is 22-11 this season and qualified for state as the D2-7 district champion. Today’s match will be broadcast on KCNI 1280 AM/96.3 FM/kcni1280.com/Free KCNI Pure Country App. Match time is scheduled for 9 a.m.
FULL INTERVIEW WITH MULLEN HEAD COACH NICHOLE OURADA
Sandhills/Thedford is making its first state tournament appearance, as a co-op, since 2015. The Lady Knights are 22-9 this season and enter as the #8 seed in the state tournament. S/T advanced to state with a 3-1 win over Elba to claim the D2-8 district championship. Sandhills/Thedford has four players with over 100 kills this season led by Emma Ray who has a team high 252. Setter Grace Johnston has accumulated 635 assists this season in directing the offense. S/T head coach Adam Kuntz visited with KCNI/KBBN sports and shared how proud he is of what his team has been able to accomplish this season.
“I am very proud of these girls. It’s been a great two years since I’ve arrived in the Sandhills and Thedford area. Last year we ended with the district final loss to Red Cloud, so that was a little disappointing. And I’m just really happy that these kids and this program get to experience Lincoln and the state tournament after all the work and trust they put in kind of changing our style and how we want to play volleyball. So I’m really happy that we get to end it in Lincoln.”
Sandhills/Thedford will open tournament play against D2 top seed St. Mary’s of O’Neill. St. Mary’s is 29-4 this season and advanced to state with a straight set win over South Platte for the D2-1 district championship. Today’s match will be broadcast on KBBN 95.3 FM/kbbn.com/Free KBBN Thunderbird App. Match time is scheduled for 9 a.m.
FULL INTERVIEW WITH S/T HEAD COACH ADAM KUNTZ
