Platte County unable to maintain late momentum in Class 4 state quarterfinal loss

LEE’S SUMMIT, Mo. — In a match filled with drastic momentum swings, Platte County thought the final shift occurred in a runaway fourth set.

Instead, St. Michael the Archangel quickly recovered, built a big lead in the fifth and deciding set and pulled away for a 25-17, 20-25, 25-14, 11-25, 15-7 victory in Saturday’s state quarterfinal matchup at St. Michael the Archangel High School. The Guardians swept two meetings between the teams this year and reversed the result of a loss in the same round a year earlier.

Platte County (22-8-2) saw an 11-match winning streak come to an end, unable to ride the momentum of the blowout in the fourth set into the tiebreaking sprint to 15 points.

“I thought after the fourth we had all the momentum on our side,” Platte County coach Katlyn Donovan said. “We just started off too slow in the fifth, and St. Michael came out swinging. We dug ourselves into a hole that we couldn’t get out of this time. We are a team who when we get into a hole we are able to fight out of it but unfortunately, not this time.”

Platte County’s resilient season ended just short of a third state semifinal berth in four seasons. The Pirates finished third in Class 4 in both 2020 and 2022 while losing in the Class 5 District 8 championship match in the year in between during a brief foray into the state’s highest tier for the postseason.

The eight seniors on the roster were part of four straight 20-win seasons, part of Platte County’s larger streak of seven dating to the 2017 season, four conference titles that to make it five in a row overall and three playoff appearances. The group includes star outside hitters Kendall Johnson and Tatianna Murray, setter Ava Wheeler, interchangeable defensive backline contributors Jenna Wheeler, Ava Filger and Avery Walter, rotational reserve Kendai Brown and injured middle blocker Cierra Poldberg.

“This loss doesn’t define these seniors’ Platte County volleyball career,” Donovan said. “The contributions they have made to the success of the volleyball program will forever be etched in history. Each senior contributed something different to the team and program and I thank them for that.”

Entering off of a dramatically exciting Class 4 District 8 championship match win over St. Pius X, Platte County took the initial momentum in the playoff rematch. The Pirates opened on a 4-0 run, starting with the first of a team-high 13 kills from junior outside hitter Karlee Riggs.

Murray added a solo block during the initial stretch, and St. Michael’s coach called an early timeout down 6-2, showing clear frustration with the start.

Platte County continued to lead but ended up tied at 13-13 when Ava Wheeler served up one of her two aces. However, her next one went wide. Murray answered each of the next two points from St. Michael with two of her 11 kills to keep the Pirates from going behind. The Guardians eventually broke through as attack errors piled up and pulled away for an impressive 25-17 win, closing the set on a 10-1 run.

“There were some big momentum swings Saturday, and I feel like every set had some big swings for both teams,” Donovan said. “The first set we started off really well, but St. Michael battled back and got the momentum on their side. I should have done a better job of calling a timeout earlier to hopefully break up the momentum they had going.”

Filger started the second set on a strong service run that included her only ace.

Down 6-2 again, St. Michael took another early timeout but without the same result. Johnson, who totaled 10 kills in her final match to go over 800 for her career, went cross court for an ace, followed with one of three blocks for Ava Wheeler in the setter’s rotations through the front line. That put the Pirates ahead 10-6, and Jenna Wheeler followed with one of her two aces to make it 11-6.

Platte County finished with seven aces total — two each for Ava Wheeler, Jenna Wheeler and Johnson — but most of them came early in the back-and-forth exchanges of the first two sets. The Pirates carried that momentum through to finish off the second set, which ended up being the tightest of the five.

“Although we lost the first set it was great to see the girls battle in the second set,” Donovan said. “A Lot of teams could or would have just given up at that point but not us. We fought hard to win that second set.”

Back level, the match played out almost dead even statistically.

St. Michael recorded 45 kills to Platte County’s 44, while the Pirates had an edge by one ace. The teams were almost even in blocks, as well with Platte County totaling 10, including a team-high six assists for sophomore Emma Macaluso. The Guardians finished with 11.

Ava Wheeler finished with 42 assists after compiling a career match-high 64 in the win over St. Pius X.

With the numbers so even, the biggest surprise ended up being the margin of victory in the final three sets. St. Michael dominated the third and fifth, while Platte County thoroughly controlled the fourth.

“I feel like us and St. Michael are a very evenly matched and similar teams and unfortunately we came up on the losing end both times,” Donovan said.

In late August, St. Michael traveled to Pirate Fieldhouse and won the first two sets on the way to a four-set victory.

However, Platte County looked much different by the time the two teams met again in the playoffs. The Pirates were replacing two seniors from last year’s third-place state team plus a starting setter who did not return to the team. That required Ava Wheeler to fully shift into that role, while Murray moved outside after a pair of productive seasons in the middle.

That meant Poldberg went straight to the starting lineup in her first varsity action alongside sophomore Malin Cole (three blocks and four kills in the quarterfinal) with the backline of Jenna Wheeler (team-high 20 digs), Walter (11 digs) and Filger (10 digs) the experienced part of the defense. Platte County leaned on the all-around skillset of Kendall Johnson (18 digs in addition to her offensive numbers) and Riggs’ continued development on the left side while Murray showed continuous improvement and comfort on the right side.

However, Poldberg suffered a season-ending ankle injury in the Winnetonka Invitational, and Macaluso went from junior varsity to key starter in an instant. She recorded six kills in addition to her blocks in Saturday’s rematch with St. Michael after not playing in the first meeting with the Guardians. Brown also became a more pivotal sub for service, and her nine service points Saturday were second only to Johnson’s 10.

After bowing out of the Winnetonka tournament with a loss to St. Pius X that determined the Class 4 District 8 top seed, Platte County lost the next match to Class 5 power Liberty North but did not lose again until Saturday. All eight seniors were pivotal to this run and added to a legacy that has included the state semifinal berths and state trophies representative of the two best seasons in program history.

“I told them in the locker room that what I will miss most about the season is not the wins but the daily conversations and interactions that we had,” Donovan said. “It will be very hard to replace eight seniors that did so much this year, but I know that the juniors and underclassmen are ready to step into a some big roles for us.”