For the first time since Lindsay Krause was still wearing SkyHawk green, Skutt Catholic secured the prestigious Bellevue West Invitational title on Saturday.
The SkyHawks had finished second in each of the previous two seasons, falling to Lincoln East in 2022 and to Papillion-La Vista South in 2023. They got another crack at the Titans this season as the preseason No. 1 teams in A and B met each other in the final once again, this time with the opposite result as Skutt rallied from a deficit in set three to secure a 25-18, 21-25, 25-22 victory in the best-of-three championship.
“This group, they just have this inexplainable bond, and even though we were down, there was never a doubt that we thought we were going to lose,” Skutt coach Renee Saunders said. “Even though there was a ball that went down, I’m like, ‘Oh, we’re in trouble right now; is that going to be it?’ But they responded really, really well.
“And I think the reason we love this tournament at the beginning is because we get challenged, and we see how we respond when we’re challenged. We got challenged against Mount Vernon and then we got challenged against Papio South, and I thought we handled it really well. And obviously I’m super excited for this group of kids because I think they’re a pretty awesome bunch.”
Mount Vernon is a talented team from Iowa featuring an outside hitter committed to Dani Busboom Kelly at Louisville and an opposite hitter committed to Arkansas. The SkyHawks swept the Mustangs 25-17, 27-25 in the semifinals, their fifth straight 2-0 win after going unbeaten in pool play Friday and topping Elkhorn South 25-17, 25-23 in the quarterfinals.
North Carolina commit Addison West, a junior outside hitter, led the SkyHawks in kills (finishing unofficially with 13 on around .300 hitting), showcasing her powerful arm throughout the match.
But with Skutt trailing 20-17 in the third, it was senior Abbie Hagedorn (a Sacred Heart commit) and junior Avery White who stepped up. Hagedorn had four kills in the final 11 rallies and White delivered an ace during a strong serving run that allowed the SkyHawks to take the lead.
“Avery on the service line, that was her,” Saunders said. “She was huge in that third set on the service line to get us going. And then Abbie was huge, obviously, being able to put in the attack. But then our passing, our defense, we started getting good touches on blocks.”
Among Hagedorn’s nine kills was match point, though it wasn’t necessarily intentional. A strong Titan serve triggered an overpass that just barely cleared the net and went down off a Titan blocker
“Not the way we drew it up, but we’ll take it,” Saunders said. “On Avery’s service run, they had kind of a mishit kill. We had a mishit pass that just happened to be a kill.”
To secure the title, Skutt had to shrug off losing a set for the first time this season as they struggled mightily offensively in the second set, which carried over into the third as they fell behind 14-8. However, they found a way to stage the comeback.
“The second set was ugly on both sides,” Saunders said. It was just a bunch of errors, and nobody really got into a great rhythm. And I thought the third set was actually pretty close and pretty even, and then Papio South just kind of rolled away from us for a little while. But they never gave up. I think that that’s a special group of kids that they don’t let leads get to them. They told me, ‘We’re going to win it this year.’ And I’m like, ‘Guys, we haven’t played a game yet. We don’t even know if we’re any good.’ But they did a great job, and they responded to adversity.”
After the match, Skutt celebrated senior setter Meghan Anderson, who surpassed 1,000 career assists in the Class B state championship match a year ago. Anderson did a great job on Saturday of running the offense and spreading the ball around to all the SkyHawk hitters.
Papillion-La Vista South was without a key piece as sophomore outside hitter Kam Bails dressed but did not play. She was second on the team in kills last year as a freshman. Instead it was fellow sophomore Lyric Judson who stepped up to help fill the very large shoes of current South Dakota Coyote Lauren Medeck.
Judson led the Titans with 12 kills on over .300 hitting in the championship after dropping 10 kills on over .400 hitting in Papio South’s three-set win over Omaha Westside in the semifinals. After playing in a consistent yet somewhat limited role as a freshman, Judson played all the way around on Saturday and was impressive from both the front row and back row throughout the day.
“She’s a great player,” Saunders said. “She’s so jumpy. Even last year, watching her play, she’s so dynamic off the floor, so aggressive with her swing, just really, really fun watching her play. I don’t necessarily like seeing her on the other side, but I love watching athletes compete, and she’s an athlete that competes really hard. She’s a stud.”
Senior Charlee Solomon, a Jacksonville State commit, stepped up for the Titans as well, unofficially notching a double-double with assists and kills in her hybrid hitting/setting role for the Titans. Libero Kami Dyrstad, a 2026 Rutgers commit, also had a strong day, racking up aces and highlight-reel digs as she kept several balls off the floor that had no business remaining in play.
Both teams appear to have all the pieces needed to win state again this year.
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Other Notes:
>> The Westside Warriors claimed third place, beating Mount Vernon in three sets despite playing without two key starters in senior setter Peyton Meyer and senior opposite hitter Ashlyn Paymal. Meyer caught Paymal in the face late in the semifinal loss to the Titans while swinging at the ball. She didn’t play the rest of the match and coach Andrew Wherli sat both seniors in the next one.
Westside dropped the first set to the Mustangs but rallied to win the last two, finishing 5-1 overall in the tournament.
“I think we’re really deep,” Wehrli said. “I feel really blessed by the quality of our bench this year and honestly we’ve been kind of working through this the last year because we lost Peyton in October last year to an ACL tear. We have a next man up philosophy, so next person comes up, we go.”
Paymal, a 6-foot-2 Creighton commit, was fantastic in the quarterfinal win over Millard North, unofficially racking up 17 kills with just one attack error, hitting over .400 for the match. She also served up three aces and was in on at least two blocks.
“She’s the whole package,” Wehrli said. “She works hard, shows up in the gym, she’s intentional, she’s leading. I’m really excited to see what this season brings for her.”
>> Elkhorn North claimed fifth place, finishing 4-2 overall with losses to Mt. Vernon and Papio South. The 2023 Class B semifinalist lost four-year starting setter Reese Booth and top outside hitter Ava Spies to graduation, but junior Hayden Booth, the daughter of Creighton head coach Kirsten Bernthal Booth, replaced her sister and Reagan Wallraff, who led the team in kills last year as a freshman, has taken on a new role.
Wallraff is playing six-rotation outside hitter this season and put forth a monster performance in the consolation semifinals against Millard North. Wallraff put up 19 kills on .485 hitting in just two sets then followed that up with another 19 kills on .357 hitting in a sweep over Elkhorn South in the fifth-place match.
Through seven matches and 17 sets played, Wallraff is averaging a blistering 7.2 kills per set on .390 hitting plus 2.9 digs per set in her new role. She hits the ball as hard as anyone in the state and is still just a sophomore.
