TOWN AND COUNTRY — Lafayette setter Kyle Kubasta doesn’t dunk the ball much, but he picked a perfect time to do it Wednesday night.
Kubasta didn’t hesitate with a trip to the Class 4 boys volleyball state championship on the line against Vianney. In a tight fifth set, Kubasta twisted in the air and put the ball down with authority on the other side of the court to lift Lafayette to a 28-26, 25-18, 24-26, 18-25, 15-13 win in a 2-hour, 13-minute marathon at Maryville University.
“I don’t think I had any other options,” Kubasta said. “So I was thinking one or two hands. I just turned and threw it, and nobody was there.”
Kubasta was mobbed by his teammates immediately once the ball hit the floor.
“As soon as I saw the ball was right there, I knew Kyle was going to go up and get it.” Lafayette outside hitter Matt Haefner said. “And it was exhilarating just to be there and to just lift him up in that moment and kind of celebrate as a team after that.”
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Lafayette (25-6), No. 3 in the STLhighschoolsports.com large schools rankings, will play either St. Louis U. High (21-10-3) or Parkway South (20-10-1) for the championship at 7 p.m. Thursday.
Lucas Tran put down 16 kills, Haefner had 15, Cooper Williams had 12 and Michael Isenberg added 10 more for Lafayette. Kubasta and Ethan Tran combined for 50 assists.
“Trying to stay consistent and not get too emotionally high and too emotionally low,” Lafayette coach Whitney Ralph said. “Trying to ride the wave of the emotion and keep even keel and just doing your job not trying to do too much.”
Max Stoecklein had 17 kills, Evan Paule had 13, Brayden Wells had 11, Ashton Wells had nine and Andrew Kellar added eight for Vianney (16-13-2). Ben Villhard had 63 assists.
It was the fifth ever meeting in the state semifinals between the two large school powers. Lafayette now holds a 3-2 lead.
“It could have went either way,” Vianney coach Jeff Gabbert said. “Credit to Lafayette, they played a great match. I thought we might have had something cooking at the end of that fifth set, but it wasn’t to be. It was an outstanding volleyball match in front of a great crowd.”
Five Lucas Tran kills gave Lafayette a comfortable lead for most of the first set, before a late Vianney run erased a 22-14 deficit and forced extra time.
The Golden Griffins were able to fend off three straight set points with a couple of big swings from Paule, who had seven spikes in the opener. But Vianney couldn’t get over the hump due in part to a couple of serving errors and a Williams kill eventually clinched the first set for the Lancers.
Lafayette pulled ahead with a 7-1 run in the second set. Alex Griffon and Williams each had a pair of spikes and Isenberg added a kill and a block during the run. Lucas Tran put down two more lasers to bring up set point and Isenberg gave the Lancers a 2-0 lead with his second kill of the frame.
“Our middles got some height advantage over [Vianney], but I couldn’t force it too much,” Kubasta said. “I got to feed them in and spread out the offense a little bit.”
Brayden Wells had six kills and Keller put down five more to give Vianney the advantage in the third set. The Lancers made a late push, but a pair of Ashton Wells blasts clinched the frame for the Golden Griffins.
“We were consistent at the service line and consistent passing, which we weren’t in the first two sets,” Gabbert said. “After we got that third set, I felt really good about getting it into the fifth set.”
Vianney carried that momentum into the fourth set. Brayden Wells and Stoecklein each had three kills and Ashton Wells and Keller each had a pair as the Golden Griffins forced a fifth set.
“We kind of stopped playing in that third and fourth set after really taking it to them in the first two,” Haefner said. “It was just coming out in that fifth set and showing them who we are.”
Haefner and Lucas Tran each had three kills in the fifth set before Kubasta put it away.
“I really just want to give credit to Vianney,” Ralph said. “That was a great match and a great team. I’m sorry both of us couldn’t win because they really deserved it as well. They played an awesome match.”
