Coach Jess Lansman and the Blair High School volleyball team had two goals for the 2024 season.
The coach, first of all, wanted the Bears to compete for every ball and every point. She also wanted, however, for the players on her team to not want to give up their jerseys at the end of the fall.
When Bennington scored match point Tuesday night at Elkhorn North High School, senior Taylor Mostek immediately burst into tears at the end of her prep career. As they consoled her, many of the four-year starter's teammates cried, too.
At one instance, a tear rolled down freshman Beau Wendt's cheek as she wrapped her arms around her big sister, Nicki, after their last match together.
The Badgers may have won the Class B Subdistrict 1 Tournament match, 3-1, but BHS produced its first winning season in 22 years this fall. The Bears went 17-16 overall, securing more victories in a single season than any of their school's teams since 1997.
“They raised the bar of Blair volleyball,” Lansman said. “Those seniors, especially, bought in immediately when we had a meeting this spring.”
The coach spoke with the 12th-graders — Hayden Frink-Mathis, Nicki Wendt, Hailey Roewert and Mostek — months ago and asked them what they wanted their last volleyball season to look like.
“And they bought into our program,” said Lansman, who took over head coaching duties this year after previously serving as an assistant. “They were excellent leaders throughout the whole season. You know, people look up to them. We will truly, truly miss them.”
The seniors had plenty of support from their teammates Tuesday, though. After falling behind Bennington 2-0 on 25-14 and 25-15 first and second sets, BHS secured a 26-24 third-set victory, capturing momentum.
“They truly put together a full set, set three,” Lansman said. “It started clicking for them.”
Junior Emma Ammon opened it with a kill before adding another at 10-10. Mostek's attack evened the score again at 12-all before Madeline Chikos and Andi Hume went up for a block and earned a lead at 13-12.
“My heart was racing because they were just competing,” Lansman said. “That's all you can ask for as a coach — that girls are relentlessly competing.”
Another Hume block — she finished with six and seven kills — came at 15-13 before back-to-back kills by Wendt. Ammon's block at 19-15 even forced a Bennington timeout.
The Badgers came out of the break and watched as Ammon notched a kill, Hume beat a block for another and Roewert's own block secured a 23-19 advantage.
Bennington didn't concede, though, battling back to a 24-24 tie. That's when Chikos hit the ball to the middle of the floor for a kill and Hume scored set point on a swing over the net the Badgers couldn't handle.
The Bears were back in the match and applied even more pressure during the start of the fourth set, building an 11-4 lead. Hume, a 5-foot-9 junior, delivered again, scoring kills at 4-2 and 5-3 before her block gave Lansman's team a 6-3 lead.
Bennington won a rally to pull within 8-4, but Morgan Dondelinger's diving effort toward the basketball end line to keep the ball alive exemplified “relentlessly competing” perfectly, the coach agreed.
Unfortunately for the Bears, though, the Badgers were ultimately able to match their energy, pulling even at 12-12 and then ahead at 14-12.
“Volleyball is a game of momentum,” Lansman said. “They got momentum right there at the end.”
A Chikos ace, a Mostek block and a Roewert set up, over the net and down to the floor would tie the fourth set up again and again and again, but it wasn't enough. Despite late kills by Hume and Wendt, the Badgers sealed their postseason advancement with a 25-22 victory.
“We just couldn't get that side-out right away,” Lansman said, explaining how her team's opposition was able to string points together late.
While tears were prevalent after the Bears' final match of the season, their coach couldn't help but smile as she recounted just what a fall campaign it had been. There were 17 wins for a program that hadn't won more than 12 in any year over the last two decades.
“That's pretty remarkable what they did this year,” Lansman said. “And it all starts with your leaders.”
BHS' seniors met with her in the spring and decided to raise the bar. They did just that.
BHS VOLLEYBALL LINE SCORE
Tuesday
Bennington 3, Blair 1
BEN (20-12) 25 25 24 25 — 3
BHS (17-16) 14 15 26 22 — 1
