St. James knocks off Aquinas for 5A state volleyball title

All the pressure rested with St. James Academy entering the Kansas 5A state championship volleyball match against rival St. Thomas Aquinas Saturday afternoon at the Kansas Expocentre.

The Thunder won all three matches against Aquinas this season, including a 2-0 victory in pool play on Friday. Also, St. James, the 2015 champion, was eager to regain the first-place trophy after finishing runner-up last season.

Despite having so much at stake, Senior Allison Coens said the team wasn’t nervous, and it showed.

Playing up to its stellar volleyball tradition, St. James scored the first four points in the opening set and continued to play at a high level to beat Aquinas 25-18, 25-17.

“The whole entire season it has been a goal for us to win the state championship,” Coens said. “We worked every single practice with that end goal in mind. It has been a goal of ours ever since the last point at state last year. We wanted to come here and win. We worked hard for that.”

It was the Thunder’s eighth overall state title, four of which have come in Class 5A. The championship point came on a kill by sophomore Lauren Kropf.

“It was fun, but overall, it was the entire team putting it together,” Kropf said. “Each point doesn’t make or break each set. As a team, we played the best we could play. We fought together as a team, and that is the reason we won.”

The Thunder reached the championship match by beating Goddard 25-20, 25-17. Aquinas also had a straight-set win in the semifinals, beating Lansing 25-18, 25-15.

Coens helped the Thunder to a fast start in the championship match. Her back-to-back kills gave St. James to an early 4-0 lead. Aquinas closed to 12-11 on a kill by freshman Caroline Bien.

Seemingly, every time Bien had a big hit, Coens had an answer. Aquinas could never link enough good plays together to tie the set. The Thunder slowly increased its lead to 22-16. It was too much of a deficit for the Saints to overcome.

Aquinas came out fired up in the second set and scored the first three points. The Thunder remained calm. No timeout was needed to settle them down.

“We talked all year about discipline and that has been our team theme this year,” said St. James coach Nancy Dorsey. “We have been really strong defensively. That was how we were going to beat teams. Our defense was incredible today.”

A kill by Coens got St. James on the board and sparked a four-point run that gave the Thunder a 4-3 lead. St. James never trailed again. An 8-1 run by the Thunder put St. James ahead 8-4.

The Saints sprinkled in a few points but could never generate enough momentum to overcome the consistent play of St. James. Leading 15-11, St. James scored seven of the next eight points for a 22-12 lead.

“We focus on trusting each other and with that trust we find a way to calm our nerves and play for each other,” Coens said.

Kansas Class 4A Division 1

Louisburg lost a heartbreaker in its bid to win the Kansas 4A Division I title. Facing the defending champions, Rose Hill, Louisburg won the first set 25-23, but dropped the second set 25-10. The two teams played a third-set thriller that Rose Hill won 29-27.　　　　

This story was originally published October 28, 2017 at 2:46 PM with the headline "St. James knocks off Aquinas for 5A state volleyball title."