WATSEKA – For the fourth straight year, the Cissna Park varsity volleyball team reached the IHSA Class 1A Sweet 16.
“It feels really good,” Cissna Park head coach Josh Landon said. “It’s one of those things you never take for granted.”
The Timberwolves earned a trip to the IHSA Class 1A Watseka Sectional championship match with a 25-6, 25-13 win in the semifinals over Dwight on Tuesday.
“It feels really good. We’re pretty excited. We’re really grateful to have gotten this far,” Cissna Park senior middle hitter Sophie Duis said. “We definitely want to keep going, but we’re grateful and we’re going to cheer on this win until Thursday.”
Cissna Park improved to 36-1 with the victory.
“I’m so proud of my team and thankful for them,” Cissna Park junior setter Mady Marcott said. “We’re having a great year so far.”
The Timberwolves started the first set with a 7-0 lead as Marcott recorded two of her match-total three aces while Addison Lucht, Ava Henrichs and Sophie Duis each recorded a kill.
“It was a lot of back and forth, but our serves really kept us in the game. A lot of us got aces. We’ve just got to get that practice for it,” Marcott said. “Hopefully, we can just keep practicing and keep on going with the season.”
After Dwight sided out, Josie Neukomm and Henrichs each tallied a kill to help extend Cissna Park’s lead to 11-1.
“I’m very proud of the girls and how they came out and established the energy right away from the first serve,” Landon said. “The overall energy was great from the floor, from our bench and from the crowd. All in all, it was just a great night.”
Duis recorded a kill to make it 12-2 before a kill by Josie Neukomm made it 13-3. An ace by Ella Schluter, two more kills by Josie Neukomm – who finished the match with a team-high 10 kills – and a kill by Marina Day helped extend the Timberwolves’ lead to 18-3.
Kills by Josie Neukomm and Lucht made it 20-4 before an ace by Marcott and a block by Duis extended Cissna Park’s lead from 22-6 to 24-6.
Duis and Lucht each finished the match with six kills.
“My setters do a really good job of getting the ball to me,” Duis said. “We have a good connection building, so we’ll just make sure to keep working on that.”
The Timberwolves scored the game point on a long volley that included a hit over the net by a kneeling Josie Neukomm.
“I saw the ball and got it up,” Josie Neukomm said. “I saw Mady get it up and saw it come to me, and I just thought I have to get this over.”
“It was chaotic, but at least we got the ball over the net,” Marcott added. “It was a great game.”
Josie Neukomm made the kneeling hit from the service line after making a hustle play before recording a dig and putting up a ball for Marcott, who gave the ball to Lucht for the clinching spike.
“It was just a great energy point to regain that momentum going into set two,” Landon said.
“We have good rallies,” Duis added. “We try really hard to never let the ball touch the ground unless it’s on their side. We just have really scrappy players who know the game really well, so I’m really grateful to have those backcourt people who are constantly laying out for the ball.”
The Timberwolves started the second set with a 5-0 lead as a kill by Josie Neukomm resulted in the fourth point.
“We really like to go in and really work on our stuff,” Josie Neukomm said. “(Dwight was) a great team, but I think we passed well. We were firing on all cylinders. Kudos to our setters. They really distribute the ball really well.”
Kills by Duis and Josie Neukomm extended the lead from 5-2 to 7-2 before kills by Henrichs, Josie Neukomm and Day helped Cisna Park extend its lead to 12-5.
Another kill by Annika Stadeli and Duis and an ace by Kendyl Neukomm helped make it 15-6 before a Duis block made it 81-6. A Duis kill made it 19-7 before kills by Lucht made it 21-7 and 22-8.
Marcott and Schluter finished with 12 and 11 assists and Lucht had five digs.
“It was a complete effort tonight,” Landon said. “The girls did a great job of executing. They came in with a mindset and stayed in it. They executed out of serve-receive, which allowed us to do a lot of good things offensively.”
The Timberwolves will face Lexington at 6:30 p.m. Thursday. It will be the third straight year in which Cissna Park will face Lexington for a sectional championship after the Timberwolves defeated the Minutemen 25-23, 25-22 last year and 25-16, 25-23 in 2023.
“They’re different from last year,” Duis said. “We’re different from last year. We’re just going to play our game.”
“It’s going to be an exciting match,” Landon added. “They’re going to do a lot of good things. They’ve got two nice outside hitters. They play in tough Heart of Illinois Conference, so they’ve been tested. We went out and got ourselves tested this year playing against tougher competition in some of the tournaments we were able to get into. We’re excited for the opportunity and we’re going to put our best foot forward on Thursday.”
Josie Neukomm praised the home court advantage the Timberwolves had on Tuesday in Watseka as they stayed in Iroquois County for sectionals.
“Having this home court advantage really helped,” Josie Neukomm said. “We had the whole town of Cissna Park in the stands. It’s crowded in here.”
Cissna Park def. Dwight 25-6, 25-13
At Watseka
For Cissna Park (36-1), kills: Josie Neukomm 10, Addison Lucht 6, Sophie Duis 6; aces: Mady Marcott 3; assists: Marcott 12, Ella Schluter 11; digs: Lucht 5.