Girls volleyball: Genoa-Kingston utilizes all its weapons win state semifinal victory

NORMAL – As has been the case all season, the Genoa-Kingston Cogs just had too many weapons for their opponent to stop.

The Cogs spread the wealth on offense, and the defense was stellar as they defeated Illinois Valley Central 25-21, 25-15 in the semifinals of the IHSA Class 2A State Finals on Friday at Redbird Arena in Normal.

[ Photos from the IHSA Class 2A State Tournament semifinal between Genoa-Kingston and IVC ]

Genoa-Kingston (36-4) finished with 20 more kills than IVC (31-11) and 15 more digs (47-32) as it advanced to the 2A state title game to take on IC Catholic, a three-set winner over Freeburg in the other semifinal.

“All across the net, every single hitter we have can get kills,” senior middle Lily Mueller said. “Everyone that’s across the net, which is why we were so successful, and we were able to spread the offense out.”

Mueller led the way with 10 kills, while Alayna Pierce had eight, Alivia Keegan spiked six, and Kaitlin Rahm added five.

Keegan, who coach Keith Foster called “a floor general,” dished 17 assists and also had nine digs, and said her job running the offense is easy when she has so many options available to her.

“It’s amazing. I feel like I’m running on clouds,” she said, eliciting a laugh from her teammates. “The pass is there, I just set it up and know that these guys are going to hammer it wherever I put it, and it’s going to score.

“That comes also with a lot of trust in our team. If the pass brings me to an area where I can’t end up going where I wanted to go, knowing that I have the back side or back row or the outside middle ... I trust our hitters a lot, I trust our passers to put me in a good spot to set up for success.”

The Cogs’ defense was in top form as well. Led by libero Hannah Langton’s 17 digs and Kailey Kline’s 11 digs, G-K frustrated Purdue recruit Kenna Wollard and the rest of the Grey Ghosts’ offense by consistently digging up spikes and sending the ball back across the net.

“I definitely think when somebody can’t score, that’s very frustrating, so finding different ways gets them out of their comfort zone and makes them really have to work,” Langton said. “And when we are able to read the ball and get it up, it’s definitely very frustrating.”

Back-to-back kills by Mueller and an ace by Keegan broke a 4-4 tie, and a tip-kill and block by Mueller on consecutive points broke an 8-8 tie. A roll and a tip for kills by Rahm made it 13-8, and Keegan added a apike for a 17-12 lead. Pierce had five kills in a nine-point span down the stretch for a 23-17 margin, and a block by Rylie Stoffregen and a tip-kill by Rahm closed out the first set.

“I think we’re always ready to hit because we spread our offense out so well,” Pierce said. “So we definitely are all ready, we’re all confident, so that’s why everybody is able to put the ball down.”

Pierce tooled the IVC block to tie the second set 6-6, then Mueller and Pierce slammed kills before Mueller hit a roll and a tip for kills in a three-point span to put the Cogs up 12-8. The teams traded points, with G-K getting another tip from Mueller and an ace from Wise for a 16-10 lead. Pierce’s kill made it 18-12, them Mueller spiked a kill and Keegan served an ace for a 21-13 margin.

Keegan’s kill off the second touch made it 22-15, then consecutive IVC errors were followed by a final slam from Mueller to finish the match.

“I don’t intentionally go up just to tip – I go up swinging, and as a team and a program as a whole we go up swinging, I think that’s our mindset – but when it’s there, you just put it right over and it’s an easy kill and it just gets that momentum to get the next kill,’” Mueller said. “That’s how I got those two back-to-back, and it really got the momentum to get us going.”