Nebraska crowned its six high school volleyball state champions on Saturday as the Devaney Center hosted the 2026 NSAA State Championships.
The NebPreps team was on site to bring you comprehensive coverage of the event throughout the day, which you can find on the NebPreps and Hurrdat Sports social media pages.
Previous coverage: Wednesday | Thursday | Friday
CLASS D1
The Amherst Broncos celebrate after clinching their second straight Class D1 state volleyball championship. Photo by Brycen Samuelson.
No. 2 Amherst 3, No. 1 Central Valley 2 (25-19, 21-25, 24-26, 25-11, 15-13)
The first match of the day went the distance, but after two hours of fierce competition, the Broncos lifted the trophy for the second straight year.
Ten days after losing to Central Valley in four in a subdistrict final, the Broncos (28-5) flipped the script on the biggest stage.
“Isn’t it great to watch girls just dig in and get hungry and go compete?” Amherst coach Jonie Fader said. “To see these guys flip that switch and get after it, it’s just so fun to watch when women do that, and as you all know, when women get determined, there is nothing holding us back, and it was great to see. That is a lifetime skill.”
Amherst graduated one senior off last year’s team, one of its two setters, and with her departure Fader decided to switch from a 6-2 to a 5-1 with Kenna Hagan running the show. That involved an adjustment for the whole team, but they certainly found their stride as Hagan finished with 49 assists, 11 digs, five aces and three blocks.
After the team’s initial celebration, Fader shared a moment with her four seniors: Hagan, libero Breckyn Veskerna, opposite Libby Mitchell and middle blocker Sadie Van Ranken.
“We don’t know Bronco volleyball without the seniors,” Fader said. “They came in as sixth and seventh graders as student managers. They’ve been with us the whole time. They’ve poured in, they’ve bought in to the culture, they have bought into the accountability and the responsibility it takes to turn the tide at a school. Amherst had never won a state championship in any [girls] sport in school history until last year. It takes a lot of courage and bravery to do that, and these seniors have stood by that. They wanted to break that glass ceiling.
“I just thanked them. We don’t know what Bronco volleyball is like without them. It’s going to be a transition for our coaching staff as well because they did buy in. They’re selfless kids, they’re servant leaders, they take those freshmen under their wings. It’s a fine group of women in that senior class.”
Van Ranken led the Broncos with 19 kills on .265 hitting and five blocks. Sophomore middle blocker Brooke Bosshamer added 18 kills on .350 hitting, eight digs and three blocks. Mitchell carried the load early to finish with 17 kills. Veskerna racked up 28 digs.
The teams split the first two sets, then the third saw 12 ties and five lead changes. It was neck and neck down the stretch until the Cougars broke a 24-all stalemate with back-to-back kills from Bentleigh Dugan and Addison Ryan.
Dugan put down 12 kills in the third set to push her total to 22 and lead her team to a 2-1 lead. However, the Broncos locked in on the Central Valley star and held her to one kill in the third and none in the fifth as the Cougars hit .056 across the final two frames.
“I think the girls just got determined,” Fader said. “They got determined, and like I said, when women get focused and determined, get out of their way. That was their talk in the huddle, and what they wanted to feel at the end of the game.”
Amherst dominated set four 25-11 then fell behind 9-6 in the fifth thanks to a 5-0 Central Valley run. However, Van Ranken took over at that point with four straight points (three kills and a solo stuff) to put the Broncos back in front.
After a Central Valley sideout, Amherst won the next two rallies to pull ahead by two then traded sideouts the rest of the way, with Bosshamer delivering the final kill.
“We talked the whole week about we’re playing as a team,” Bosshamer said of the Broncos regrouping following the subdistrict loss. “It’s all team. Jonie, that’s one of her quotes that she says all the time is, ‘It’s all team.’ I think this last week, we really focused on it’s not about you as an individual player and your stats, but it’s about the team and the team’s stats and if we win.”
CLASS D2
No. 2 Mullen 3, No. 4 Wynot 0 (25-18, 25-11, 25-15)
The Broncos denied Wynot’s repeat bid in dominant fashion, sweeping their way to the first girls state title in school history.
The Broncos hit .272 and held the Blue Devils to .033 as Coach Nichole Ourada praised her team’s execution and attention to detail with the scout team as well as its offensive balance.
The Mullen Broncos lift the trophy after winning their first state championship. Photo by Brycen Samuelson.
“Their inner competitor came out today and they wanted to win,” Ourada said. “We’ve had the number of days to Devaney on our markerboard since day one of practice. We knew we could get here, we knew we would be here and we knew we could win. These girls were determined. Every day in practice they showed up, and it got us here today. We didn’t just win today; we’ve been winning every day this season.”
The Broncos fell behind 13-6 to start the match — until sophomore Abigail Gracey took over. She terminated eight times in the final 22 rallies to turn a big deficit into a comfortable win.
Mullen carried that momentum into the second set with a 12-2 start including a 9-0 run with junior middle blocker Jenna Donohoe serving. They won that game handily then won eight of the first 10 rallies in the third set as well and never looked back.
Donohoe tallied a match-high 13 kills on .276 hitting and four blocks, tallying a monster tournament run that saw her average 5.1 kills per set on .324 hitting, 3.2 digs per set and 1.4 blocks per set.
“She’s a workhorse,” Ourada said. “You tell her to do something and she’s going to do it, and 10 times that speed and 10 times that amount. Sometimes her mind works to fast for her body. Her nickname is ‘Be Patient Patty’ because she likes to go really fast, so sometimes we have to slow her down a little bit. But we play to her strengths, and all of them, too.
“They’re all very good at certain things, and so we really just try to hone in on that and, ‘This is the way you can contribute, and this is what we need from you,’ and they execute it very well.”
Gracey finished with 10 kills on .350 hitting, senior Ella Rice added seven kill on .333 hitting and a team-high 10 digs and senior setter Kalli Licking dished out 33 assists and five digs.
Now all of their names will go down in history in Mullen.
“That was our goal all along was to hang a banner on the wall,” Donohoe said. “The gold ones are second, third, fourth, and we get to put up a black one, which means we got first. I think that shows our grit and determination.”
CLASS C1
The Milford volleyball team celebrates after beating Aurora in the Class C1 state championship. Photo by Jack Stephens.
No. 4 Milford 3, No. 6 Aurora 0 (25-23, 28-26, 35-24)
Milford became the second team to repeat after sweeping Aurora, avenging an early-season loss to the Huskies.
While the final score reads 3-0, it wasn’t exactly smooth gliding for the Eagles, either in this match or this season as a whole.
After going to 33-1 en route to their first state title a season ago, the Eagles dropped three of their first seven matches this year. They had some things to figure out after losing their senior setter off that title time and with their star middle blocker Shayla Rautenberg, the Nebraska commit, missing a few matches while competing with USA Volleyball’s U19 national team.
However, figure it out is what they did as the Eagles won their last 25 matches to hoist the trophy once again.
“I thought it was awesome,” Coach Emily Restau said. “We played Aurora earlier in the season, and we were kind of working with our rotation, so it was just getting these girls to understand that our rotation was going to be a process this year, and being patient with each other and finding out where we’re going to input everybody in that rotation was key. They bought into that process, and they’re bringing home a trophy.”
One of the the biggest things they had to figure out is how to replace setter Kylie Jakub. After some experimentation, Restau eventually settled one a two-setter offense with freshman Adi Upton and junior Braelynn Muller. Muller was second on the team in kills last season and is so again this year at 2.4 per set on .303 hitting while also leading the team with 6.1 assists per set.
Muller totaled 20 assists and nine kills on .389 hitting against the Huskies.
“Braelynn, as a freshman, was running a six-two with another junior this year,” Restau said. “Then with her club, she goes and plays middle. So coming in and playing setter now, she’s just one of those complete players that we can kind of throw anywhere. She’s very smart, loves the game of volleyball, probably is in the gym the most, practicing on every single skill that she possibly can to improve. She stepped up huge in that leadership role.
“These two (Muller and Rautenberg) have a really good relationship on the court where they know that they can tell each other things that they need to do better to better our team.”
Milford junior Shayla Rautenberg elevates to swing over the Aurora block. Photo by Jack Stephens.
Of course, Rautenberg’s presence will make life easy on any setter. The junior put up 28 kills on .317 hitting, four blocks and three aces one day after setting a new Class C1 state tournament record with 40 kills in a semifinal win over top-seeded Omaha Concordia.
Rautenberg averaged north of 7.0 kills per set on well over .400 hitting this season as she continues working towards the Devaney Center becoming her permanent home.
“It’s awesome,” Restau said. “Shayla’s growth on the court is obviously there, but off the court and just her leadership role is even more. We focus a lot on her strengths, but her weaknesses are something that we focus a lot on. It really like compels our team; if she gets a dig in the back row, it’s just like OK, momentum’s going to be ours now.”
The Eagles did not have momentum early as they fell behind 13-9 in the first set then found themselves in a 23-all tie late. However, a service error gave them set point and Rautenberg capitalized to take a 1-0 lead.
They faced adversity in set two as well, squandering a five-point lead late and giving Aurora a pair of set points. Hower, Rautenberg tied it up on the second one, then freshman Alexis Upton put Milford back in front with a kill and Muller ended it with an ace.
“Our girls are relentless,” Restau said. “They know that it’s a next-ball mentality. I talk to them all the time about one ball is one point, so we just have to play one ball at a time and then just move on. It’s totally next ball. You can shank a serve receive pass and then go pass a dime the next pass. It’s leaning on each other. We have some great leaders on the court with a lot of experience and it’s just they really trust each other on the court.”
There was no drama in the final game. Milford opened the third set with four straight kills (three from Rautenberg) then cruised to the finish line from there. In a fitting end, Rautenberg closed it out on Milford’s first match-point opportunity.
“I see a ball coming to me, and I’m going to swing as hard as I can,” she said. “I don’t like to tip, so if I get set, I’m going to swing as hard as I can on match point.”
