KEARNEY, Mo. — Platte County might have endured the most turbulent, uncomfortable method of achieving the mission on the back of this year’s team shirts.
Platte County senior Ava Moffitt hits a pass in the Class 4 District 8 championship match against Kearney on Monday in Kearney.
Top-seeded Kearney created serious doubt after an overwhelmingly dominant performance in the fourth set of Monday’s Class 4 District 8 championship match, but Platte County regrouped and survived. The Pirates came away with an intensely dramatic 25-12, 21-25, 25-20, 9-25, 15-11 victory at Kearney high School that adds to a lengthening track record of sustained success spanning nearly a decade at this point.
Platte County replaced eight seniors and have already found a way to lock up an eighth straight 20-win season and have now earned a second straight playoff berth — part of a longer stretch of four in the past five seasons.
“I’m going to start with the quote on the back of their shirts. The seniors decide the quote, and they chose ‘Leave A Legacy,'” Platte County coach Katlyn Donovan said. “Obviously, Platte County volleyball has had a good legacy for the past however many years. No credit to me; credit to all the girls. And I knew coming in that they wanted to continue that legacy, but we’ve had to replace a big group of seniors who contributed to a lot of our success for the past four years. I loved that was their quote, and I’m so glad they cemented their legacy by winning this district title.”
In the second meeting of the two teams this season, each dominated a set and found a way to win a tight one to set up the final tiebreaker to 15.
Platte County junior Carissa Bacon goes to hit a serve in the Class 4 District 8 championship match against Kearney on Monday in Kearney.
Platte County (21-11-1) came out of a brutal stretch in the fourth set in need of a complete restart. The Pirates appeared to take a quick 2-0 lead only for a late net violation call to reverse the outcome of the second rally of the fifth.
There were multiple tight rulings throughout the final set and ties at every point total from five to 10.
“It’s hard to just let those go, especially for girls in high school,” Donovan said. “At the beginning of the season in those situations when calls didn’t go our way, we’d respond negatively. I thought we did a better job this time around of letting it go. But it’s hard as a coach; it’s hard as a player when calls don’t go our way, but that’s just a frustration you have to work through, and we did a good job of that tonight.”
Platte County senior all-state outside hitter Karlee Riggs supplied an energy-building kill to build the Pirates’ third two-point advantage of the set at 13-11 and brought junior Carissa Bacon to the service line. She produced with both of her aces to finish off the victory in memorable fashion and add a new Class 4 District 8 championship plaque to the program’s collection.
Seeded second despite having a prior win over Kearney, Platte County advances back to the Class 4 playoffs to host a state quarterfinal against Notre Dame de Sion (15-9) at 1 p.m. Saturday at Pirate Fieldhouse. The two teams have not met this season.
“It means we’ve got to prove ourselves. I’m ready for it,” said Platte County senior Ava Moffitt, who set a career-high with a team-best 14 kills and an ace.
Platte County senior Karlee Riggs hits a spike in the Class 4 District 8 championship match against Kearney on Monday in Kearney.
In a season filled with matches won and lost outside of three sets, Platte County’s experience with adverse scenarios paid off in the biggest moments to this point. The Pirates swept the first matchup between the two teams this season and seemed in solid position to take the rematch in four sets.
Instead, top-seeded Kearney scored the first three points of the fourth set and eventually led 14-1 with Platte County’s only point in the disastrous stretch a result of an initial service error from the Bulldogs. The Pirates were never able to regain any momentum and lost 25-9.
“I kept asking the assistants: ‘What can I do? What can we do?'” Donovan said. “They said: ‘Just ride it out.’ Moving forward, we have to do a better job of responding to those negative situations that happen. We were put in a lot of negative situations in that fourth set, and we told them to not focus on the score. Just worry about getting the momentum back on our side. We never did, which was fine because that’s how competitive sports work. Everyone wants to win.
“But going into that fifth set, we just said: fresh start. Focus on one point at a time, and it was back and forth.”
After the brief break before the fifth set, Platte County regained control of emotions and eventually held a 5-3 lead before three unanswered from Kearney put the Bulldogs up 6-5 to start the long back-and-forth stretch of ties. The Pirates’ experience from past postseasons — even though limited — seemed to win out late.
Paltte County junior Emma Macaluso tips a ball over the net in the Class 4 District 8 championship match against Kearney on Monday in Kearney.
Based on the early results, a fifth set seemed unlikely.
With Riggs (13 kills) and junior middle hitters Malin Cole (three kills) and Emma Macaluso (three kills and three blocks) returning starters from last year’s state quarterfinalist, Platte County dominated the early proceedings. Moffitt went to the service line early and helped the Pirates build a 7-1 lead in front of a sizable and energetic crowd.
Kearrney took a timeout, but the lead went to 10-1 in the best stretch for Moffitt, who finished with 12 points.
“It’s happened a couple of times before but never near when it was that important or that good of a team,” she said.
Kearney answered with four straight points to pull within 10-5, but Platte County freshman Miah Omoike ended the stretch with an authoritative kill that returned service and momentum to the Pirates. She then went to the line and served up four points in a row, including one of her team-high six aces.
Platte County freshman Miah Omoike hits a spike in the Class 4 District 8 championship match against Kearney on Monday in Kearney.
Platte County never trailed and ended up with the most comfortable set victory out of three, not showing any signs of the early struggles from a semifinal victory over St. Pius X two days earlier.
However, Platte County trailed most of the second set outside of leads at 4-3 on another Omoike ace, part of her team-high 14 service points, and a Riggs block — one of just five overall for the Pirates — that left Donovan impressed.
Omoike provided another potential path to Platte County for a two-sets-to-none lead with five straight service points that included two more aces.
“I hope that we give her some of that confidence, and I cannot wait to see what she does the rest of three years here,” Moffitt said.
Kearney forged ties at 16 and again at 19, critically after a kill from Cole put Platte County up 18-16, and then 21 leading to Donovan’s second timeout of the set. The stop in play didn’t have the desired effect, and the Bulldogs put up the final four points in a row to tie the match at one set apiece.
Kearney then won the first four points of the third set and led 6-1.
Platte County junior Gia Derose goes to try and dig a loose ball in the Class 4 District 8 championship match against Kearney on Monday in Kearney.
A starter from the opening serve of the season, Omoike (nine kills) stepped up again with another critical kill and then two more aces to pull Platte County within 6-5. The Pirates didn’t take control until much later after an ace from Bacon, who finished with 17 assists as part of the two-setter rotation, and a pair of Kearney attack errors put them up 17-14 and led to a timeout from the Bulldogs, who would close within one point twice but were never level again.
Moffitt contributed a kill from the left to give Platte County a 21-18 lead and another well-placed, even if mishit, attack to cap a stretch of four straight points she started. The Pirates took a 2-1 lead on the fourth set point.
“We like to do that, obviously. We like to dig ourselves in a hole,” Donovan said. “But again, testament to these girls. They are battle-tested throughout the years. We talked in the huddles it’s not necessarily the hard-driven kills that will get us the win; it’s those smart, finesse shots and mixing our sets up. We did a really good job of that.”
The biggest question mark for Platte County showed in the fourth set with the inability to lean entirely on the play of Riggs. For the most part, the Pirates’ strong defense lengthened rallies with junio libero Gia Derose finishing with 26 digs while Moffitt (17) and Riggs (15) also finished in double figures.
Platte County’s bench and crowd celebrate a point in the Class 4 District 8 championship match against Kearney on Monday in Kearney.
That led to the diverse offense with Bacon (three kills) and senior setter Sailor Bane (17 assists and eight digs) forced into creative setting situations or Platte County ending up in unorthodox, scrambling attacks.
“People know that Karlee’s a two-time all-state player, and we feed her a lot. That’s fine,” Donovan said. “Karlee’s still going to get her kills, but we just need someone else to step up with her, and we’ve had that the past bunch of games. If it’s not one person, it might be a different person the next night. We’ve had people step up.”
Platte County hopes to continue the trend against Notre Dame de Sion, the No. 3 seed and upset winner over Belton in Tuesday’s District 7 championship match. The Pirates claimed third-place state finishes in both 2020 and 2022 but lost in the Class 5 District 8 championship in 2021 during a brief one-year bump up in postseason alignment before dropping last year’s quarterfinal to St. Michael the Archangel in five sets.
Forced to replace a large contingent of key pieces, Platte County’s updated roster with a smaller but important senior class of Riggs, Moffitt, Bane, Daphne Churchill and Rylee Pickett started 6-0 but endured a series of potentially demoralizing losses and found success at the right time. This group’s legacy chapter resumes in Saturday’s home playoff match with one more win locking up the third state trophy in program history.
Platte County 3, St. Pius X 1
The Pirates overcame a slow start for a 23-25, 25-20, 25-22, 25-13 in Saturday’s semifinal at Kearney High School.
Platte County won both meetings between the two teams this season but needed a comeback this time around against the No. 3 seed. The Pirates pulled a three-set sweep over St. Pius X in late September.
Moffitt (12), Omoike (11), Cole (11) and Riggs (10) all finished in double-figures for Platte County, which again overcame adversity and pulled away late. The Pirates started strong in the second set and ended up comfortably leveling the match, but St. Pius X led 15-9 in the third only to cede an 11-2 run that changed the course of the closing stretch.
Bacon, Bane and Moffitt all had two aces apiece, while Bane posted 25 assists to Bacon’s 18.
Moffitt’s big game also included a team-high 18 digs for Platte County, while Derose and Riggs added 17 apiece. The Pirates had six blocks with three apiece for Omoike and Macaluso.
Platte County 3, Van Horn 0
The Pirates swept Thursday’s first round matchup at Pirate Fieldhouse 25-4, 25-14, 25-9 after entering off a four-set loss to Grain Valley in the regular season finale.
Bacon posted six of Platte County’s 16 service aces, while Omoike added four, Moffitt three and Pickett two. The success from the backline limited the offense to just 32 kills with Macaluso tying a career-high with 10. Omoike finished with eight, Riggs seven and Cole five in the dominant performance.
