Fremont's historic season ends with opening round exit to Elkhorn South
Fremont star Mattie Dalton and co-head coach Sue Wewel were the last two out of the locker room inside Pinnacle Bank Arena Wednesday night.
Dalton was the concrete in which the foundation of the newly remodeled Fremont volleyball program would anchored on. Wewel, alongside co-head coach Halie Williams, the architects—the fourth in as many years to handle the blueprint, putting down the framework over which the concrete would fill.
Together, they wanted to admire their handiwork and set the plans for the next cornerstones to be placed in the final moments of the season.
The marriage of Fremont's golden generation of volleyball, Dalton at the forefront of it, and the town's greatest volleyball coach had produced nearly everything the group aspired to achieve when they first met in late spring this year.
Wins by the bucketful, the most by any Fremont team in program history—check.
Individual program records shattered up and down the line-up—check.
A conference championship, the first in over four decades—check.
A district title, also the first in 41 years—check.
A return trip to the state tournament- check.
All of those goals were at the back of the team's mind when a handful of players sent their pitches to Wewel in late spring to come take the reigns at Fremont.
The group knew they had greatness in them. Even with three different coaches in three years, the group had stacked more wins than nearly any other class in the school's history. They also knew, there was still more left to achieve. They just wanted it tapped to its fullest and Wewel with her storied history would be the one to do.
One box, however, remains unchecked—win a game in the state tournament.
No. 3 Fremont bowed out of the Class A state tournament in the opening round, swept away by No. 6 seed Elkhorn South 25-22, 25-17, 25-20 Wednesday night at Pinnacle Bank Arena.
"We seemed a little hesitant in the first game, didn't get things going right away, didn't get into a rhythm," Wewel said.
Fremont put together a 7-2 run in the opening set to erase a 10-5 deficit, but never fully took control of the set, spirally out to a six-point deficit after climbing back into the match.
The Tigers made another charge at the Storm facing match point, fighting off a conclusion for five-straight points before dropping the opener by three.
"We gave it a valiant effort," Wewel said. "It just wasn't our night tonight. We weren't quite in rhythm."
It was the only major string of points on the night for Fremont as Elkhorn South covered practically every square inch of its side of the court on every point.
"We really thought we could go into the deep position and hit there and even to the setter side and get some points out of that, and their middle back really responded to our hits," Wewel said. "Their block was pretty sound too and so it was hard to get things going."
Fremont ran into trouble again in set two as Elkhorn South kept senior Dalton in the back row, hamstringing the Tigers' offense while building a 15-9 lead.
"They played lights out and that's hard," Dalton said. "It's hard when you walk away from a loss and that's how the other team played and you feel like you didn't play the same."
Once unshackled from the back row, the North Dakota commit put down five-straight kills, cutting the deficit down to 18-15.
Dalton finished with 22 kills to lead the Tigers one final time, setting the program's career kill benchmark at 1,933.
Fremont held the lead for most of the third set, clinging to a 14-10 advantage at the midway point.
Elkhorn South outscored the Tigers 15-3 the rest of the way.
"It's hard when you know that you went out and it wasn't your best play," Dalton said. "I still went out with my best friend and you know, I made lifelong relationships along the way."
Blair Boehlke added five kills and Makenna Meyer chipped in four kills.
Setter Kate Denker dished out 24 assists.
Fremont ends the year with a 28-6 record, the most wins in program history.
"They accomplished so many things for this Fremont team and for the school and the community," Wewel said. "The seven seniors that were on the court did a great job of coming together, making things fun and practices lively and it has been a really fun run."
The seven seniors that etched their name in the foundation of the revamped Tiger program are Dalton, Denker, Meyer, Katie Proskovec, Betsy Jannsen, Bryleigh Hofer and Brie Evert.
"The biggest thing for me is, I just hope that the incoming players are excited to play Fremont volleyball," Dalton said.
They accounted for over 80% of the team's kills and half of the squad's blocks, leaving big shoes to fill for the next generation.
"I always believe that tradition never graduates," Wewel said. "The legacy that these girls have left is so instrumental in getting kids to come out for volleyball, first of all, but then to put in that extra time needed, these guys were great mentors."
