Dukes drop state opener against Elkhorn North
LINCOLN – The York girls got off to a fast start in the Class B quarterfinals Wednesday morning, winning five of the match's first six rallies.
Elkhorn North settled quickly settled in, however, and once the Wolves flipped the momentum onto their side the Dukes couldn't quite get it back.
York battled until the final point, but Class B's No. 4 seed ultimately proved to be too tough as the Dukes saw a successful season end in a 25-12, 25-15, 25-15 loss.
"I'll never question the effort of these girls," head coach Kelby Phillips said. "They work their butts off, they hustle after everything every time and they're a really hardworking group."
After the slow start, the Wolves answered back in emphatic fashion, closing the opening set on a 24-7 run to gain the upper hand early. The second and third sets followed similar scripts, as the Dukes would hang tough early before a lengthy Elkhorn North run created the cushion the Wolves needed.
Part of that stemmed from York's inconsistent serve receive, as the Wolves held an 11-2 advantage in aces for the match. Elkhorn North's height at the net also played a factor, racking up 12 blocks against four for the Dukes.
Hayden Booth led the way with four blocks for the Wolves and Lindsey Herbek tallied three
"The game plan included the big block on the other side and how to use the block, when to go for it and when to be a little more strategic," Phillips said. "We probably needed to execute the game plan a little more in some of those situations, but we still were able to find some success offensively."
Elkhorn North finished with 44 kills against the Dukes' 24. Sophomore Reagan Wallraff led all attackers with 18 winners and Shannon Heaney added eight.
York's attack was led by freshman Harley Wardyn with seven kills, followed by five apiece from sophomore Addison Andersen and senior Cynley Wilkinson. Chloe Koch, another senior, had four winners for the Dukes.
Sydney Jacobsen had two kills and Reese Hirschfeld rounded out the attack with one.
At the net, the freshman Jacobsen led the York effort with a trio of blocks and Andersen added one, while senior libero Lainey Portwine racked up a match-high 15 digs to anchor the defense followed by Koch with seven.
At the service line, Koch and Kinslee Kern each crushed one of the Dukes' two aces. Hirschfeld was the main offensive distributor with 21 set assists.
Despite Wednesday's loss, the 2024 season was still a success for York. The Dukes finished 25-11 after going 11-21 in 2023, finishing as the Central Conference runner-up and reaching Lincoln for the first time since 2021 to end the year at state.
"It's a big accomplishment to get here. The girls have done a lot of really good things this year – making the championship of conference, beating Seward in subdistrict finals, being able to go on the road and beat Gering to get here – those are all huge accomplishments, and not every team gets to celebrate that opportunity," Phillips said. "I'm grateful that we had the experience of being here, but that's what we're going to take from it; it's an experience, we're building our file and hopefully we get to continue to find our way back here, and each time it's more experience we can build on to find a little more success once we get here."
For a roster with 10 underclassmen, Wednesday was also big for York in terms of merely getting a match in Lincoln under their belt. The Dukes will return a five-woman sophomore class next fall, as well as the freshman duo of Wardyn and Jacobsen in addition to juniors Danika Pohl, Kali Wardyn and Katlyn Krausnick.
That gives Phillips and assistants Carley Hartman, Brooklyn Gierhan and Reegon Cast a solid base to build from moving forward into 2025 and beyond.
"There's a lot of teams here who have been here before, but this was a new experience for this group. We talked about it multiple times, the atmosphere here is different and it's something that's hard to recreate," Phillips said. "You have to experience it to know what it's like, and that's a good thing for the underclassmen because now that they have a taste of it, they know what they want and we can build on it."
While York will return a lot of pieces from this year's squad, the Dukes will also bid farewell to an impact senior class as Wilkinson, Hirschfeld, Koch and Portwine all suited up for the final time in their prep careers Wednesday.
"They're a great group of young women. I'm really honored to have been their coach for the last three years and to watch them grow into the people they're going to be as they move on to the next stage of their life," Phillips said. "I hope they have a lot of really good memories from their volleyball experience, and even though we didn't get the outcome today we would have liked, I hope they still cherish that memory."
