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Newman Catholic completes three-peat for Division 4 girls volleyball state title

11/07/2015, 9:15pm CST
By Max Ethridge

Newman Catholic will be bringing home a gold ball for the 3rd year in a row.  Newman Catholic prevailed over Southwestern 3-1 (23-25, 25-19, 25-12, 25-20) in a rematch of last years Division 4 state final.

Mariah Whalen had the match of her life today when her team needed it most.  Whalen, a Wisconsin recruit, finished with 29 kills, 8 digs, 3 aces, 3 blocks, and a .333 hitting percentage.  Abbey Fox and Rylie Vaughn also gave major contributions to Newman Catholic.  Fox with 6 kills, 25 assists, 2 aces, 14 digs and 3 blocks.  Vaughn had 3 kills, 19 assists, 17 digs, and 2 blocks.

The 1st set was nip and tuck; neither team was going to give an inch.  Southwestern caught a break with the score at 19-18 when Newman Catholic’s Mariah Whalen had two straight hitting errors, moving the score to 21-18.  Whalen would recover though and come out a timeout with a monster kill.  With Southwestern up 22-19, the Wildcats then committed a serving error and a double contact that moved the Newman Catholic deficit to 1.  Southwestern won the set 25-23 after Newman Catholic senior, Abbey Fox’s tip attempt went just long.

Southwestern maintained a lead for most of set  #2.  Southwestern senior, Michelle Budden was having her way with the Newman Catholic defense. Budden had 6 kills during the first 19 points for Southwestern.  The Wildcat’s scoring would stall however after the first 19 points were on the board.  Newman Catholic went on a 8-0 scoring run to close out the set.  This run included 3 kills and 2 blocks by Mariah Whalen, as well as 3 aces by senior, Taylor Hackel.

Set 3 was completely dominated by the Fighting Cardinals.  Newman Catholic never trailed and ended up with a 13-point difference by the end of the set.  Nearly perfect play from Mariah Whalen and Abbey Fox provided the Cardinals with many kills, tips, and aces.  Newman Catholic senior, Karina McGucken took the set with a tip for the 25-12 win.

Newman Catholic trailed for the majority of the 4th set, but they never wavered.  Newman Catholic regained and kept the lead at 20-19 on a Budden blocking error.  As expected, the Fighting Cardinals looked to Mariah Whalen to get them the win.  Whalen finished off the match with 2 final kills to get the 4th set 25-20.

Seniors, Madison Kuhl and Michelle Budden shined once again on Saturday.  Kuhl had 26 assists and Budden had 22 kills and almost broke the state record with 70 attempts.  

This is the 3rd state championship for Newman Catholic in school history, all in the last 3 years.

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