For the first time this season, Class B No. 1 Norris volleyball found itself pushed to the edge, with No. 3 Waverly forcing a fifth set in a showdown between two EMC rivals Tuesday night.
However, the Titans responded under pressure to pull out the win (25-15, 21-25, 25-12, 22-25, 15-11) and improve to 14-0 on the season.
The reigning Class B champion had only dropped one set all season before Tuesday’s match, but the Vikings posed their toughest challenge yet. A talented Waverly team showed no signs of wilting in the unfriendly confines of the Norris Middle School Competition Gym, forcing the Titans to dig deep and earn it down the stretch. That’s exactly what they did, closing the match on a 5-2 run and gaining valuable experience.
“I think we just learned that we can be confident and just trust in our abilities,” senior setter Malorie Boesiger said. “I don’t think we ever got too frazzled. We were composed and we trusted in each other and just leaning on each other. I don’t think anyone had the best match of their life, but just playing together is really important.”
Norris had a chance to seal it in the fourth with the score knotted at 22-all, but Hallie Lauenstein terminated to give the Vikings the lead then Samantha Hagaman finished it at the service line with back-to-back aces.
“That was an ideal way to end the game,” Norris coach Christina Boesiger said sarcastically. “But hey, I was like, ‘It’s a new game; there’s nothing you can do about it. That’s how it ended, and it’s a fresh game to 15.’ They are great servers, we knew that coming into it, and kind of our communication shut down a little bit there, So we just kind of moved on and started fresh at 0-0.”
The Titans jumped ahead early in the fifth set, leading 8-5 midway through. The Vikings weathered the early storm and managed to pull within one three times, the last at 10-9. However, the Titans never let go of the rope, and four of their last five points came via kills as they kept swinging away until the end.
The Titans celebrate after the match-point kill from Alli Bornschlegl (2). Photo by Jackson D. Luethje.
“The thing I liked best is that we stayed aggressive,” Coach Boesiger said. “I think win the sets we lost, we got a little tentative and played it a little safe, and I was like, ‘You have to go out swinging.’ I think our defensive pursuit of the ball really picked up too, so it was good to see that.”
Senior Alli Bornschlegl, Class B’s kills leader, certainly took her coach’s words to heart. After a quiet start to the fifth, the South Dakota State commit recorded Norris’ final two kills, the second on match point. Senior London Meints passed a tough serve right to Malorie Boesiger in the middle of the floor, giving her a chance to set her go-to hitter in system for the win.
“She has that in her, and she had that sparkle, that twinkle in her eye, and she’s like, ‘Mal, get me the ball,’” Coach Boesiger said. “So I had no worries about her when it was her, Loryn [Piening] and Malorie in the front row. I was like, ‘OK, you guys finish it right here,’ with them in the front row.”
Bornschlegl finished with 22 kills, 15 digs and two aces to lead the Titans, continuing her torrid start to her final season.
“Alli B. is just so amazing; I love setting her,” Malorie Boesiger said. “I think what makes her so special is just her range, and she reaches at such a high contact point, which a lot of people in high school volleyball don’t touch. So she has a lot of other opportunities because of that reach.”
While athleticism and power are her calling cards, Bornschlegl also made use of strategic tips throughout the match to combat Waverly’s block and keep the Viking defenders guessing.
“McKinley [Moser], their setter, her vertical is huge, and I knew that from the beginning of this game, she was going to be on me, and there was going to be a huge block in front of me,” Bornschlegl said. “I think that Malorie really helped to kind of get it from pin to pin, and I think going up with a big block, you just have to be crafty. So I think today, my biggest thing was just you don’t have to kill every ball. If you get a good ball back, I would count that as a win in my brain.”
After the match, Norris recognized Bornschlegl for reaching 1,000 career kills, which she did in the first match of the Plattsmouth Invitational on Saturday. She’s at 1,058 and counting — one of just three Titans ever to hit the century mark — and is averaging 5.1 kills per set on a blistering .434 hitting through 14 matches. On top of her attacking prowess, Bornschlegl has averaged at least three digs and better than four receptions each of the past two season.
Norris senior Alli Bornschlegl (2) holds a poster commemorating her reaching 1,000 career kills. Photo by Jackson D. Luethje.
“She’s just a solid six-rotation player,” Coach Boesiger said. “She’s one of the best that’s come through at Norris. Just great; really, really athletic. She got 1,000 this weekend, so it’ll be fun to see how far that’s going to go this year. She’s phenomenal player.”
Piening, the lone junior on the Titans’ senior-heavy roster, made a significant impact as well, setting a new career high with 14 kills on .429 hitting plus three blocks. The East Tennessee State commit was a solid contributor as a sophomore, averaging 2.2 kills per set on .383 hitting, but the 6-foot- middle has taken her game to another level this season with 2.8 kills per set on a .559 clip.
“Loryn is a beast,” Coach Boesiger said. “She just is physical, her maturity level, her composure, all of that, just jumping really, really well. Her and Mal have a great connection; they played club together, so I think they kind of were able to develop that throughout the club season. But you saw her; she is just physical at the net, and she’s been doing this consistently all season long.”
Meints was the third Titan in double figures with 11 kills on .368 hitting and 15 digs.
The match featured future Big Ten setters on both sides of the net with Boesiger, a Nebraska commit, running the show for the Titans while Moser, a Minnesota pledge, set the table for the Vikings. Both players showed off their prodigious skill, but Boesiger came out on top with 51 assists, 14 digs, four blocks, three kills and an ace.
Norris setter Malorie Boesiger (7) stares across the net with Waverly setter Mckinley Moser (13) in the foreground. Photo by Jackson D. Luethje.
“It was a great offensive game, zipping both directions,” Coach Boesiger said. “Both setters are a pretty fast tempo type of setters, and so it was just a fast game — a long game, but a fast game, so I think that’s fun. You just always have to be ready for the next one, next point.”
Unofficially, senior Gracie Lauenstein led the Vikings (10-4) with 16 kills and two aces while her twin sister Hallie, a USC Upstate commit, added 13 kills.
Coach Boesiger said “the endurance of staying fresh through long rallies” is what she liked most about her team’s ability to pull out its first five-set win of the season. While the Titans back-to-back state titles with a combined 76-2 record, Bornschlegl said the area where she’s seen the most growth form her veteran team is with their confidence across the board.
“I think last year most of us were juniors,” Bornschlegl said. “We had a few really awesome seniors, but this year you can see we have nine seniors up there [on the wall], and I think that we’ve all been playing together since eighth grade. This is our last ride together, and we talked about it in the locker room today, actually. In eighth grade, our last game against Waverly, we lost, and they dog piled on the court and it was crazy. There were tears, all this.
“So I think that we’re playing for those girls, and I think that that’s what’s special and what’s different about our team.”
