NORMAL, Ill. • The Breese Central volleyball team won the school's eighth state volleyball trophy Saturday afternoon when it defeated Decatur St. Teresa for third place in the Class 2A tournament at Illinois State University's Redbird Arena.
Maddie Timmermann had a team-best 10 kills, and Taylor Voss ended with seven in the Cougars 25-19, 25-18 triumph over the Bulldogs.
Central, which finished second in the 2010 state tournament and is No. 5 in the STLhighschoolsports.com small-schools rankings, ended its season at 33-9.
St. Teresa, which was fourth in 2010 in Class 2A, wound up 33-5. Marie Less led the Bulldogs attack with a match-high 11 kills.
"It kind of feels better to get third because we were winning it," Cougars senior Taylor Voss said. "Losing yesterday (25-23, 25-12 to Chicago Christian) wasn't good. So walking off the floor today as a winner was great."
Central coach Jim Cook was happy with the final result.
"We were on a roll today," he said. "Getting on top of them in that second game was very important. I told them to keep the ball in play. Put the pressure on them. Make them play the ball."
CLASS 1A -- In the Class 1A third-place match, Gibault couldn't overcome a poor first-game performance as Springfield Lutheran beat the Hawks 25-10, 25-22, 25-20. It was the school's first volleyball trophy.
Hannah Wessel and Courtney Schutt each had nine kills, Kayla Tutor handed out 16 assists and Erin Goldschmidt wound up with 22 digs for Gibault (32-10), No. 8 in the small-schools rankings.
Lutheran ended 36-4 as Abby Heise had a match-high 11 kills and Jeslyn Roat added eight.
