Jeff Hajny

    On Nov. 9, the Centennial Bronco volleyball ended their season with a record of 27-6, but not before pulling one of the upsets of the year.
    Centennial 3, Norfolk Catholic 2
     The opening round saw David defeat Goliath as the Broncos beat undefeated, number-one ranked Norfolk Catholic three games to two.
     The Broncos won the first game 25-18.
     "I think Norfolk Catholic kind of overlooked us in the first set, and we simply took advantage of it with strong serving which took them out of their system offensively," Coach Craig Songster said.
     Norfolk Catholic answered back, winning the second and third games 25-15 and 25-14.
     "They started clicking in the second and third sets and then relaxed again in the fourth," Songster said.
     Centennial won the fourth and final games with scores of 25-23 and 19-17.
     Mackenzie Sullivan finished with 20 kills, 25 digs and one ace block for the Broncos.
     Melanie Erks had 20 set assists.
     Haylie Zima led all servers with four ace serves.
     Beth Erks and Emily Koski both added one ace block for Centennial.
     "Words cannot describe how proud I am of the girls and their effort," Songster said. "As a coach you always tell kids to 'leave it on the floor,' and the girls did just that.
     "I don't think there were many people outside of our team that truly felt that we could beat them. These girls will always be able to say that they knocked off the undefeated number-one seed. I know the girls made a lot of people in C-1 happy."
    Minden 3, Centennial 2
     The semifinals saw Centennal lose to Minden three games to two.
     Centennial came out strong, winning the first two games with scores of 25-21 and 25-22. Minden bounced back and won the next three with scores of 27-25, 25-19, and 15-11.
     Sullivan had 24 kills, 32 digs and one ace block.
     Melanie Erks had 32 set assists for Centennial.
     Beth Erks had three ace serves and one ace block.
     Shelby Eikenhorst added 30 digs for the Broncos.
     "Minden got hot at the wrong time for us, and we just had a couple of communication errors at the wrong time," Songster said. "I was concerned as we entered the fourth set that fatigue might be a factor, and unfortunately it was.
     "It was pretty evident that our serving and defense started to drop off as the game wore on, and unfortunately that's when Minden's outside hitters got hot."
     Songster is very proud of the girls' season.
     "We had a great run," Songster said. "We talked about not letting that final loss let us forget about the biggest win that these seniors had been a part of during their high school careers. We had a great season and surprised a lot of people with how far we made it through the state tourney.
     "These kids worked hard all year to attain the goal of making it to state, and they were set on not only making it to state, but making noise as well, and they definitely did that. I couldn't be prouder of the girls and the accomplishments that they had this season.
     "We lose four seniors (Beth Erks, Autumn Dinkelman, Shelby Eikenhorst, and Brooke Pfeifer) who we'll miss greatly. They led by example and pushed everyone to get better. They've set a standard which the younger ones truly want to keep going. They're hungry and ready to head back to Lincoln next year."