Andrean’s ‘big relief ’
Majchrowicz’s kill sends 59ers to state championship match, ending years of frustration
This obviously wasn’t the first time that Andrean outside hitter Angelina Majchrowicz went up for a kill.
And it certainly wasn’t the first time that Maddie Kmetz set for her.
On this particular point, though, three years of postseason frustrations were eliminated the instant Majchrowicz’s spike hit the hardwood.
“I was just so excited,” she said. “I knew it was in, and I knew, in that moment, that we were going to state. It felt unreal.”
That point was the final tally in the 59ers’ 25-21, 25-11, 25-11 win against South Adams in the Class 2A Huntington North Semistate on Saturday, sending them into the state championship match against Western Boone.
Andrean (31-5) won semistate for the first time since 2017, a season that ended with the program’s only state title. The 59ers hadn’t advanced beyond the regional round since then, despite coach Grant Bell believing several of his teams from recent seasons had the talent to do so. That explains why “relief ” came up when he discussed the win.
“After this three-year drought of even making it to semistate, it felt like there was pressure to get this monkey off our back,” Bell said. “It felt like we’ve been good enough to compete at the state championship level for the last few years. Coming here and ending those years of frustration is such a big relief.”
The players felt that pressure as well. Kmetz, a senior setter, expressed similar relief — once she found the right words.
“I’m just speechless. … I barely know what to say,” she said.
After a long pause, she continued: “I feel like those frustrations put a fire under us and made us motivated at practice to push each other to get better and think about how much each practice was going to help us get to state.”
With no seniors on the roster last year, the group that was on the court for Andrean on Saturday was largely the same one that had lost to Fairfield in a 2020 regional semifinal.
“We thought we were going to state, but we fell short,” Majchrowicz said of last season. “This year we really pushed ourselves during conditioning, before the postseason and during the postseason. We worked really hard because we were so motivated to go to state this year.”
Bell said South Adams’ clear physical advantage gave the 59ers an additional dose of confidence.
“When we got onto the court, our girls saw how much bigger we were than South Adams,” Bell said. “That gave them that little extra boost that they could do it. We hardly made any unforced errors. It was such clean volleyball.”
The statistical leaders for Andrean were all the familiar faces. Sophomore outside
hitter Marin Sanchez had a team-high 15 kills, and Majchrowicz, a senior, had 14. Kmetz had 34 assists, and junior middle blocker Audrey Nohos controlled the net with five blocks.
Not long after the win, however, Kmetz’s mind was already looking ahead.
“We’ll definitely need to start preparing ourselves as soon as we get back,” she said. “But it’s going to be insane. I can’t wait.”