Platte-Geddes bounces back with 3-set win at Class A state tournament

ABERDEEN — There were large differences in the Platte-Geddes volleyball team’s play from one day to the next.

The biggest change came when the pressure was on for the Black Panthers.

Trailing Redfield/Doland by five points late in the second set, Platte-Geddes rallied and forced extra points to eventually take a 2-0 match lead at Friday’s consolation semifinal match at the Class A state volleyball tournament.

That momentum carried into the final set, where the Black Panthers finished off a sweep of the Pheasants. They won by set scores of 25-18, 30-28 and 25-11 and advance to play St. Thomas More for fifth place at 1:45 p.m. today.

“I just wanted to get (the second set) over with,” said Platte-Geddes senior middle-hitter Emily Johnson, who finished with a team-high 14 kills. “I knew that we definitely had a chance to come back, because we were playing kind of sloppy. But if we started playing like we could, I figured we’d come back.”

The sweep-style win came a day after the Black Panthers lost in five sets to Sioux Falls Christian in the opening round of the tournament, which was a match that Platte-Geddes led 2-1 and lost in the fifth set 15-12.

But things were different on the second day.

“We ran our offense a lot better and we received a lot better,” Black Panthers coach Jill Kemnitz said.

And Johnson was a big part of Kemnitz’s offense. She put an end to the second set when she halted a back-and-forth battle with back-to-back kills.

Redfield/Doland led 24-21, but kills by Kellee Griese — who finished with 10 — and Chelsea Biehl, paired with an out-of-bounds tip by the Pheasants, sent the match to extra points.

The teams exchanged points until they were tied at 28, and Johnson ended two long volleys with slamming spikes.

“It was nice to win that set,” Kemnitz said. “It’s happened a lot this season where we come out on fire with a lot of intensity in that first set, but then we have problems in sets two and three. It was nice to overcome that.”

A 12-0 run paved the way to an easy third set win for Platte-Geddes. Elania Deadrick had two straight aces in the run and Griese, Johnson and Biehl each had kills.

Johnson had two kills to open the match and Dakotah Taylor had two aces late in the first set to help take an early one-set advantage.

Biehl had seven kills, Kalli Kuipers finished with 34 assists and Johnson had a team-high 17 digs.

Platte-Geddes (26-4) and St. Thomas More play for fifth place at 1:45 p.m. today. The teams didn’t play each other during the regular season.

Tags: high school volleyball, sports, platte, geddes