GRAND ISLAND — Grand Island’s state-tournament drought is over.
The Class A No. 6-rated (Omaha World-Herald) Islanders swept Columbus 25-20, 26-24, 25-19 in Wednesday’s Class A District 5 championship. The home-court victory clinched a state-tournament berth for Grand Island for the first time since 2013.
“Coming from where we were at the past few years to get to this point feels pretty good,” Grand Island senior middle blocker Keira Jones said. “We put in all the hard work in the offseason, but we also came together as a team and that was really important.”
When a Columbus attack error resulted in match point, the celebration was on for the Islanders.
“We’re very excited and it just feels good to get our team to state for the first time in quite a while,” Grand Island junior middle Mya Chrisman said. “All of us have been working really hard. It’s just really satisfying to have that hard work pay off.”
Grand Island is headed back to state in coach Marcus Ehrke’s fourth season at the helm. The Islanders were 2-24 in Ehrke’s first year in 2020, but improved to 17-14 in 2021, 21-12 in 2022 and will take a 26-8 record to Lincoln.
Ehrke said he felt his team was capable of reaching the state tournament in the preseason.
“I’m not going to lie: At the beginning of the year, we had high aspirations,” Ehrke said. “There was a lot of chatter around our school with hopes that we could get to this point. We felt a little bit of pressure of expectations coming into this year, but we really just tried to embrace it.”
Jones agreed.
“We just felt like we were a really good team and we had confidence that we were going to come together and do it,” Jones said. “It was just a matter of trusting our teammates, trusting our training and coming together.”
The Islanders opened some eyes with a 4-2 performance at the Lincoln Public Schools Tournament. That included a loss that saw Grand Island take a set from No. 1 Papillion-La Vista South.
“The LPS Tournament, was a huge turning point for our girls,” Ehrke said. “We played Papio South, we played Papillion-La Vista, Gretna (and) Bellevue West — some of the best teams in Class A — and not only did we compete, we beat a lot of them.
“I think that gave our girls the belief we could compete with anyone.”
In the A-5 title match, Haedyn Hoos (17 kills and two blocks) and Tia Traudt (12 kills and two aces) led the way as Grand Island had a 39-35 edge in kills. Addysen Waind added five kills and Jaysa Wentzlaff had 31 set assists for the Islanders.
Columbus (18-14) countered with 12 kills from Addi Johnson and nine kills apiece by Paighton Erb and Ayla Janssen. Anisten Barnett had 20 assists and Carley Kapels had 14 assists for the Discoverers, who entered the A-5 title game 1-3 against Grand Island.
“When you play a team five times, they know you, you know them (and) they kind of knew what tendencies to expect from us,” Ehrke said. “I’m just really proud and happy for our girls.”
After Grand Island used an 8-1 start to control the first set, Columbus battled back in set two and tied the score at 24-24 on a kill by Erb. However, the Islanders responded with a kill from Hoos and an ace serve by Wentzlaff to take a 2-0 lead in sets.
The score was tied at 19-19 in the third set when Grand Island produced a 6-0 run to close out the victory. Traudt had a kill and an ace and Hoos ripped an kill in the spree that also included three Columbus attack errors.
“We stayed very level-headed all night,” Chrisman said. “When you go down a point, you just have to think with a ‘next-point’ mentality and know that we’re going to get it right back.”
And now, the Islanders are headed to Lincoln. First-round Class A matches at Pinnacle Bank Arena are scheduled for Nov. 1.
“I’m just grateful — it’s hard work to get here,” Ehrke said. “It sounds cliche, but there are a lot of ups and downs to get to even a district final and you’ve got to have things go your way. You’ve got to have matchups work out in your favor and then you just have to play well in a crunch-time game.
“We’re just making sure that we put this program back on the map and let people know that we can not only go (to state), but we can win there as well.”
Grand Island 3, Columbus 0
Columbus (18-14)
20
24
19
Grand Island (26-8)
25
26
25
COLUMBUS (kills-aces-blocks)—Carly Gaedeke 0-2-0, Addi Johnson 12-1-0, Abby Haynes 0-0-0, Paighton Erb 9-0-2, Grayson Gentile 1-0-5, Ayla Janssen 9-1-0, Anisten Barnett 0-0-0, Taytum Miller 5-0-3, Carley Kapels 0-0-0. Totals 36-4-10.
GRAND ISLAND (kills-aces-blocks)—Tia Traudt 12-2-1, Addysen Waind 5-0-0, Jaysa Wentzlaff 2-1-0, Keira Jones 1-1-2, Haedyn Hoos 17-1-2, Mya Chrisman 2-0-1, Jaylen Hansen 0-0-0. Totals 39-5-6.
Set assists—Columbus 35 (Barnett 20, Kapels 14, Haynes 1), Grand Island 34 (Wentzlaff 31, Hansen 3).