Different class, same result for Elkhorn North volleyball as the second-ranked Wolves won Bellevue West’s Thunderbird Throwdown for the second straight year on Saturday.
The 2025 Class B state runner-up opened its Class A era with a 6-0 showing in the tournament.
Senior outside hitter Reagan Wallraff, a Creighton commit, has been dealing with an Achilles injury during the preseason. She sat out the Wolves’ first match in pool play Friday and eased into bracket play on Saturday as she didn’t start serving until the semifinals. However, she got better and better as the day went on and put forth a dominant effort in the final as Elkhorn North beat Gretna 2-1.
“It felt really good,” Wallraff told NebPreps. “I’m really proud of my team. We worked really hard, and it’s definitely the beginning of the season, so we still have room to grow, but I think we did really well for our first tournament.”
Elkhorn North went 3-0 in pool play (2-0 against Sioux City North, 2-1 against Millard West and 2-0 against Millard West) on Friday to qualify for the Gold Bracket Saturday morning. In bracket play, the Wolves swept Omaha Marian, rallied to beat Skutt Catholic 2-1 in a thriller then topped Gretna 3-1 in the final.
Elkhorn North returned most of its lineup from last season. However, there was one big void in the lineup with setter Hayden Booth off to college at Bradley. Coach Jenny Gragert decided to open the season in a 6-2 on Friday with senior Millie Mauch and sophomore Remi Christiansen splitting the setting duties, but on Saturday, it was all Mauch.
Elkhorn North senior Millie Mauch prepares to serve during the Thunderbird Throwdown championship. Photo by Jandi Green.
The younger sister of Nebraska libero Olivia Mauch began her high school career in a two-setter offense at Bennington, playing a key role as a freshman. After transferring to Elkhorn North as a sophomore, she moved to defensive specialist. This season, she’s back to setting, and she took full advantage of the opportunity on Saturday.
“We just have a lot of different options right now,” Gragert said. “We started with a 6-2 yesterday, and we flipped into a 5-1, and it just was working well for us. I think that it’s something that we’re going to be able to be adaptable in a lot of matches and be able to flip in and out of 6-2, 5-1, and we have a lot of hitters on our bench that could come in and do a nice job … Her decision making was really good, and she was playing good defense.”
Mauch dished out a career-high 44 assists in the three-set win over Gretna, setting her team to a .355 hitting percentage and 49 kills. The Wolves beat the Dragons 25-23, 19-25, 25-25 to claim the title.
After splitting the first two sets, Elkhorn North broke a 6-all tie in the third with a 4-0 run and never looked back, gradually pulling away throughout the rest of the set.
“We were in system a lot, and then I think they started to get out of system,” Gragert said. “Their passing game just kind of dropped a little bit, and I think anytime your first ball contact starts to struggle, the team that’s passing better is going to pull ahead.”
Elkhorn North in system is going to be a problem all season for the opposition with Wallraff on the floor. She tallied 11 kills in the quarterfinals, 16 in the semis and 23 in the final on a blistering .513 hitting, plus a team-high 12 digs for the double-double.
Elkhorn North senior Reagan Wallraff (9) celebrates with her teammates after a point during the Thunderbird Throwdown championship. Photo by Jandi Green.
“She’s got some issues with her Achilles, and I think she had an MRI, and so she was cleared and they said it was nothing serious,” Gragert said. “But I still think that it’s sore, and so I think she was a little apprehensive, and but I think she really clicked at the right moment, which was our last match.”
In truth, Wallraff really began clicking at the end of the Wolves’ semifinal win over Skutt. Elkhorn North trailed 23-19 in the third set before a sideout, then Wallraff stepped back to the service line and reeled off five straight points, including an ace and a kill on match point. Gragert said the Wolves’ theme throughout the weekend was “adaptability and resiliency,” and that semifinal win showed they have those traits in spades.
Another player who embodied resiliency during the championship run was freshman Ashtyn Liebsack. After a strong quarterfinal performance including four aces, the outside hitter struggled in the semifinal, to the point where Gragert turned to junior Nora Morgan for a stretch in her place. Yet Liebsack was right back in the lineup for the final and finished with nine kills.
“I think stamina to play at this level for six matches in two days is hard for anyone, but a freshman it really is,” Gragert said. “Nora Morgan came in and she did a great job. And then Ashtyn kind of had her feet back under her, and it so it was a nice reset for her, and she did a good job coming back in.”
Junior Payton Palmer (.533 hitting) and senior Kaitlyn Huff (.294) added eight kills and one block apiece. Junior Reese Wallraff, Reagan’s sister and a Gonzaga commit, totaled 10 digs for the Wolves, who will head to Millard West on Tuesday.
Runner-Up
Gretna ultimately came up short, but Coach Wendy Loberg learned a lot about her team after the Dragons barely squeaked into the gold bracket with a 1-2 pool play record Friday before turning it around on Saturday to reach the final. They beat Millard North 2-1 (18-25, 25-23, 25-20) in the quarterfinals then Millard West 2-0 (28-26, 25-21) in the semifinals.
Gretna junior Koco Janssen (8) sets the ball to fellow junior Leighton Froehlich during the Thunderbird Throwdown championship. Photo by Jandi Green.
“I learned that they grew exponentially over the last 24 hours,” Loberg said. “We have three people on our squad that have really never had varsity experience before, and I thought they just improved and stepped up and did some great things.”
The Dragons returned their top three attackers from a 27-7 team but lost two-year starting setter Maggie Miller to graduation. To fill the void, Loberg switched to a 6-2 with juniors Koco Janssen (second on the team in kills in 2025) and Addie Walker splitting the setting duties.
“Those two are really close,” Loberg said. “The setters talk to each other all the time, and they make our offense hard to read, I think. I think there are some things that we can do that maybe are deceptive with our system and how our setters communicate. So I’m really proud of how they work together.”
Jansen, a lefty, was terrific both as a distributor and as an attacker in the championship, unofficially totaling nine kills on .471 hitting as well as double-digit assists. Junior Rutgers commit Leighton Froehlich matched her with nine kills on .474 hitting while junior Mississippi State commit Logann Dostall added eight kills.
The Dragons also had to replace their departed libero, Lily Zimmerman, but that position is in good hands with junior Arizona State commit Ava Nowling sliding into the role.
“Ava is just such a dog,” Loberg said. “She covers 900 square feet. She’s never stopped, she’s always pursuing, and just a great leader on our team.”
Third Place
Prior to the championship, Millard West outlasted Skutt Catholic in the third-place contest for a 25-27, 25-15, 26-24 victory.
The Wildcats (5-2) opened the season with a 3-1 win over Elkhorn South on Thursday, then went 2-1 in pool play on Thursday to earn a spot in the gold bracket. Their lone loss came against Elkhorn North 2-1 in a match that saw them take the first set 25-8 before the Wolves turned things around to take the last two sets 25-15, 25-21. The Wildcats downed Waverly 28-25, 25-21 in the quarterfinals before falling to Gretna in the semifinals.
Both junior Brinley Walter and senior South Dakota commit Ava Waters flashed big arms for the Wildcats — when the latter wasn’t setting others. She splits those duties with sophomore Whitney Pfanenstiel. Ashland-Greenwood transfer libero Averi Bridges, who committed to Penn State in June, covers a lot of ground defensively and will continue to do so as she makes the leap to Class A volleyball.
As far the SkyHawks, they have a lot to replace from last year’s team, which featured nine seniors, including one of the best players in the state in current North Carolina freshman Addison West.
Junior South Dakota State commit Madison Zajicek and senior middle blocker Charlotte Kollars are the most experienced returning attackers, and both showed flashes of terrific play during Skutt’s run Saturday — including a 14-kill performance from the future Jackrabbit against Millard West. Junior Miriam Souchek also stood out as a sometimes-setter, sometimes-attacker with a dangerous serve.
