Pinnacle Bank Arena played host to the quarterfinal round of the 2025 NSAA Volleyball State Championships on Thursday and Friday.
The first two days of the tournament saw numerous upsets and some massive individual efforts. Here are some of the best performances from the quarterfinals.
WEDNESDAY
Sister, Sister
Nobody scored more kills on day one than 2027 Creighton pledge Reagan Wallraff, who finished with 22 of them (of Elkhorn North’s 40) on .462 hitting in a sweep of EMC rival Bennington. That included nine of the team’s 14 kills in the second set as she dominated the game, and she added five digs and a block to her final line.
While the older Wallraff controlled things offensively, her sister Reese, the team’s libero, held things down defensively with 16 digs, four assists and two aces as the Wolves held Bennington to a .104 hitting percentage.
West Gets Better and Better
Friday’s semifinals will feature two of the top pins in the state going head-to-head as the Addison West led Skutt Catholic to a sweep over Columbus Lakeview to earn the spot across the net from Elkhorn North.
The North Carolina commit got better and better as the game went one, with four kills and one error in the first, seven kills and one error in the second and nine kills without an error in the third, and the SkyHawks needed every one of them in the final game, a 25-23 SkyHawk victory.
Volleyball fans won’t want to miss Wallraff and West trading big swing after big swing in Friday’s semi, set for 7 p.m. on the South Court.
Milford “Rauts” Adams Central
The other kills leader from Wednesday came from the C1 quarterfinals as sophomore Shayla Rautenberg matched Wallraff with 22 kills on .370 hitting. The 6-foot-3 middle blocker plays all the way around for the Eagles and added seven digs and five blocks to her line as Milford beat Adams Central 3-1 to secure its first state tournament win. The second-seeded Eagles are now 33-1 on the season.
Rautenberg, the daughter of Nebraska hall of famer Lisa Reitsma, had Huskers assistant Jaylen Reyes and junior Harper Murray court side watching her play. She’s one of the top middles in the country and although Division I coaches can’t contact her directly yet, she’s attended Nebraska’s Dream Team camp.
Malcolm Trio Clips the Four-Time Reigning Champs
Halle and Payton Dolliver have carried a heavy load for Malcolm all season, each averaging over 4.0 kills per set, and they both put up big numbers in the Clippers’ quarterfinal matchup with four-time reigning champion Lincoln Lutheran.
Halle, the Omaha basketball commit that missed her entire junior athletic season with a knee injury, went off for 21 kills, 21 digs, five aces and two blocks. Her sophomore sister Payton, who led the team in kills this season, added 18 kills, 16 digs and three blocks.
However, junior opposite hitter Laurel Johnson was the one who swung the match. She put down five of her career-high 18 kills in the fifth set as the Clippers took down the Warriors 15-10. Johnson came in averaging 2.4 kills per set on .328 hitting but on Wednesday, she produced 3.6 kills per set on .389 hitting, giving Malcolm enough firepower to snap Lutheran’s state tournament winning streak at 12 matches.
“We had a tough schedule all along. Some of those losses benefitted us a lot. We learned to grow from those mistakes.”
Malcolm’s Laurel Johnson added 18 kills to help the Clippers in its five-set win over Lincoln Lutheran in the Class C1 quarterfinal. #nebpreps | @pinnbank pic.twitter.com/YwiCHQy9Ei
— nebpreps (@THEnebpreps) November 5, 2025
Omaha Westside’s Stellar Duo
The Warriors pulled off the only seed-line upset in Class A and avenged a regular season loss as No. 5 Westside topped 4-seed Omaha Marian by controlling the action in sets three and four.
The star of the match was senior outside hitter Madeline Lamb, who went off for 18 kills on .340 hitting, 19 digs and a block. Fellow senior Makenzie Wingett, an opposite hitter, added 17 kills on .359 hitting, four digs, four blocks and three aces.
The duo combined for 17 kills with only four errors with Wingett adding her three aces in the final two sets as Westside outscored Marian 50-32.
Papillion-La Vista South’s 6-2 Studs
Lincoln Southwest punched the reigning Class A champion in the mouth from the jump, taking the first set 25-22. However, the Titans dominated the final three sets to earn a trip back to the semifinals, outscoring the Silver Hawks 75-36.
Even with the slow start, the Titans posted the highest hitting percentage of any Class A quarterfinalist at .294, and that’s a credit to the two Titans that share setting duties in Papio South’s 6-2 as they combined for 50 assists and 22 digs.
Senior Ella Eymann put up 29 assists and 10 digs while sophomore Tess Solomon added 21 assists and 12 digs. Four Titans finished with double-digit kills as the setters spread the ball around. Junior Lyric Judson hit .522 with 10 kills and added six blocks, while Rutgers commit Kami Dyrstad led the defensive effort to hold Southwest to .021 hitting with 19 digs, six assists and an ace.
THURSDAY
Arbuthnot Back in Action
Sumner-Eddyville-Miller’s Taryn Arbuthnot helped the Mustangs win a state title in 2023 but suffered a knee injury during the basketball season that sidelined her for an extended period. She announced she was back at state in a big way on Thursday by going off for 21 kills on .362 hitting, 14 digs and an ace in a sweep over BDS.
S-E-M won the first and third sets by a combined 28 points, but the second set was competitive. However, Arbuthnot went off for 10 kills by herself, matching the Eagles’ team total.
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20/20 Vision
The Ryans are no strangers to the state tournament. After JoLee Ryan led Overton to a state title in 2023, younger sister Daisy Ryan is now starring for the Eagles while playing for her mom, Hayley Ryan.
Daisy showed on Thursday she has what it takes to put Overton on her back as she racked up 23 kills and 20 digs in a four-set win over Southwest, chipping in a block and an ace to finish with 24.5 points and send the Eagles soaring into Friday’s semifinals.
Ryan was the star of the show, but credit goes to the Roughriders as well who went down swinging. Senior Kyra Nelms went off for 27 kills on .278 hitting with seven digs and two blocks in her final match, while sophomore setter Aspen Billeter had her own 20-20 game with 27 assists, 26 digs, three aces, two kills and a block.
Shelton Seeing Double
The reigning D2 state champions are making noise again despite jumping to D1 this season, with the senior duo of Jalyn Branson and Erin Gegg leading the way.
Branson, an outside hitter, totaled 26 kills, 14 digs and one block. Gegg, a middle blocker, matched her with 26 kills and 11 digs as the Bulldogs outlasted Central Valley in five to earn the three over six seed-line upset. Branson accounted for four of Shelton’s six kills in the fifth as the Bulldogs won big, 15-6.
Ridiculous Ray
The single best performance from the first round belonged to Oakland-Craig senior Briar Ray, who needed just four sets to post the highest point total of any player in the quarterfinals. She went off for a school-record 39 kills (that’s 9.75 kills per set) on .319 hitting, 17 digs, two aces and one block. She accounted for 41.5 of Oakland-Craig’s 64 points as the seventh-seeded Knights knocked off No. 2 Guardian Angels Central Catholic.
What’s even crazier is she only recorded four kills in the first set before tallying 11, 11 and 13 in the final three games.
On the other side of the net, sophomore Bailey Gerths showed the future is still bright for the Bluejays as she went down swinging, finishing with 25 kills on .386 hitting, 13 digs and one ace.
Unbeaten No More
Yutan became the second 8 seed to knock off a one on Thursday night, following in Holdrege’s lead from day one. In doing so, the Chieftains handed Johnson County Central its first and only loss of the season. The Thunderbirds had only lost five sets all year heading into the tournament, but they dropped three out of five on Thursday.
Senior Mylee Tichota led the upset, recording another 20-20 game with 22 kills and 25 digs plus three aces and a block. The 5-foot-11 pin hitter scored five kills in a 15-11 fifth-set victory, including one on match point.
Johnson County Central senior Ashley Beethe went down swinging, racking up 37 kills and 16 digs to cap a prolific season, but it wasn’t enough to advance.
Falcons Fly High
The Freeman duo of sophomore setter Aniston Bartunek and senior outside hitter Alicia Johansen were too much for Thayer Central as the Falcons were the only higher seed in Class C2 to advance.
Bartunek put up 48 assists, 22 digs, five kills on 11 errorless attacks and two blocks in a 3-1 Freeman victory. Johansen was her favorite target, racking up 19 kills on .310 hitting to go with 22 digs, four assists, one ace and one block.
Bears Make Program History
Sixth-seeded Laurel-Concord-Coleridge closed out the day with a 3-1 win over No. 3 Norfolk Catholic that saw 20-20 game. Junior outside hitter Rena Rasmussen went off for 27 kills on .348 hitting and 20 digs while chipping in a pair of blocks and an ace for good measure.
Rasmussen recorded seven kills in the fourth set including three in a match-sealing 4-0 closing run for the Bears as Laurel-Concord-Coleridge picked up a win in its first trip to state.
