The Papillion-La Vista South Titans went 34-5 last season en route to the Class A state title. However, three of those losses came during some of the biggest in-season tournaments of the year — the Bellevue West Invitational, the LPS Invitational and the Allison Weston Invitational.
The Titans were the best team in the state by the end of the season, but they missed out on chances along the way to add to their regular season list of accomplishments. That hasn’t been the case this year.
Papio South opened the season by beating Omaha Skutt 2-1 in the Bellevue West Invitational championship match. On Sept. 16, the Titans avenged a loss to Lincoln Southwest in last year’s LPS Invitational final, taking down the Silver Hawks in three sets. This weekend, the Titans ripped through the Allison Weston Invitational at Papillion-La Vista, winning all five of its matches 2-0 to improve to 25-0 on the season.
“Obviously, we had a lot of matches, but with each match, I feel like we took something from it and actually applied it during this tournament for the first time … This weekend in particular I think we took a big jump,” Papillion-La Vista South coach Katie Tarman said. “We had won everything prior to this, but there wasn’t as much growth as there was this weekend, and that’s what I needed to see from them.”
The top-seeded Titans swept No. 4 seed Lincoln East, No. 5 seed Papillion-La Vista and No. 8 seed Omaha Burke in pool play, then topped No. 6 seed Omaha Westside in the semifinals to earn their spot in the championship.
The Spartans earned a rematch with the third-ranked Titans, but it didn’t go any better for them as Papio South won 25-16, 25-17 behind 10 kills on .474 hitting from freshman Kam Bails and nine kills on .333 hitting from South Dakota commit Lauren Medeck. Charlee Solomon and Kyla Dyrstad combined for 23 assists in the Titans’ 6-2 offense with Solomon adding four kills and an ace.
“It’s good,” Tarman said. “These kids compete at a very high level and I think we’re just we’re just trying to grow. That’s our goal is every week and every day, trying to grow, and that’s what we’ve done this weekend.”
The Titans have continued to roll despite middle blocker Morgan Bode, a returning starter from last year’s title team, missing time with an ankle injury. Tarman said the South Dakota commit should be back soon but has continued to take an active role from the bench while she’s been out.
“She’s a wonderful human being who coaches every play of the game,” Tarman said. “When you look at it like that, she’s still growing, and as soon as we can get her on the court, it’ll be a nice addition again.”
Megan Waters led the Spartans (16-7) with nine kills while Sandy Faali added six. In both sets, The Titans went on runs early on to build a lead and East couldn’t find a way to climb out of the hole.
“We came in fourth and finished second, and that’s something to be proud of with the type of caliber teams that are competing at this tournament,” Lincoln East coach Nicole Johnson said. “So there’s no reason to be disappointed … I think it’s just us continuing to build our confidence. We’ve had lots of injuries; we’ve had a broken finger, sprained ankle, sprained foot, so many things. I’m hoping us getting through this adversity is just going to allow us to peak at the right time.”
The No. 3 Spartans made it to the title match by springing an upset in the semifinals against No. 2 Lincoln Southwest Saturday morning, and they did it in dominant fashion. East won 25-17, 25-17 in the first meeting of the season between the two Lincoln schools, handing the Silver Hawks their second loss of the year.
“It was probably some of the best that we’ve played all year,” Johnson said. “We had Homecoming last night, so it’s kind of one of those where you’re like ‘How are we going to do this morning?’ For them to show up and execute as well as they did was pretty impressive to me, so I’m pretty happy about it.”
Prior to the championship, Lincoln Southwest and Omaha Westside battled for third place.
The Silver Hawks went 3-0 in pool play before falling to East in the semifinals. Westside went 2-1 in pool play to advance to the gold bracket before running into the Titans in the semifinals.
Westside bounced back more quickly, however, and handed the Silver Hawks their second straight loss, 25-21 and 25-23.
“It feels great, honestly,” Westside coach Andrew Wehrli said. “We’ve been talking a lot about what it means to be competitive and being able to just push back, and I thought we did a really good job of making adjustments. Our kids worked really hard in that set; very excited about about our improvement this year.”
Saturday was Westside’s third meeting with the Silver Hawks. In addition to the 2-0 loss in pool play Friday, the Warriors fell 3-0 at Southwest back on Sept 7. In round three, Westide finally broke through and improved to 8-7 on the year.
“I think it can start to build momentum,” Wehrli said of the win. “We’re a completely different team than we were a month ago and we’re consistently making improvements in the gym. So it’s a good indication that the work we’re putting in is actually resulting in something.”
