Kmetz aces final
Senior setter earns clinching point on serve as Andrean wins Class 2A state championship
MUNCIE — Andrean senior Maddie Kmetz didn’t know it was going to be the final serve in the final set of the final match of the season.
The 5-foot-8 setter was just hoping to keep the ball in play.
Kmetz’s third ace — a match high — proved to be a championship clincher, giving Andrean a 25-20, 20-25, 25-27, 27-25, 15-12 victory against Western Boone in the Class 2A state final at Ball State’s Worthen Arena.
“I’d already missed so many serves,” she said with a laugh. “I knew I had to get this one in, and it’d be nice for an ace, just to get this match over. When it happened, I had to look at the score to make sure it was 15, and I kind of blacked out after that.”
Andrean (32-5) won its second state title, and first since 2017, with the win over Western Boone (27-9). The stress of the back-andforth, ultracompetitive match challenged the cardiovascular systems of everyone in the building, including Andrean coach Grant Bell.
“I don’t think you’re supposed to be able to feel your heart, but I can feel it pounding in my chest right now,” Bell said with a wide smile while clutching the team’s championship trophy. “Every point was four or five volleys over the net until we could finally score. We had to earn every point.”
There was plenty of drama over the 2 hours, 25 minutes, including 47 ties and 23 lead changes. But a veteran Andrean roster — loaded with seniors who had tasted postseason defeat for the past three years — found ways to withstand every on-court storm.
“There were definitely times when I thought that I was going to lose my head,” senior middle hitter Brooke Molson said with a laugh. “We just had to take a deep breath and relax. We knew that we weren’t playing to our potential, so we just had to gather ourselves and get the job done.”
That happened after Andrean lost a tightly contested third set and again near the end of the fourth set, when the 59ers led 24-20 before the Stars scored four straight points to get within two of winning the state title. But Andrean withstood that surge to win the fourth set and then overcame an early 4-0 deficit in the
fifth set to seal the win.
Audrey Nohos, a 6-1 junior middle hitter who had 10 kills and tied Molson for the team lead with five blocks, said the 59ers’ determination was forged during a three-year stretch in which they didn’t advance beyond regionals.
“For the past week, all we’ve been thinking about is state and having to do X, Y and Z when we got here,” Nohos said. “Just being on some of those other teams, coming so close and never doing it … to go through regionals and semistate and now win state is so emotional. I’m just so happy.”
Andrean’s younger players thrived in the state championship match as well. Sophomore outside hitter Marin Sanchez led all attackers with a careerhigh 23 kills, and junior libero Kara Schutz had a team-high 25 digs.
But seniors were all over the score sheet. Kmetz had 55 assists and 16 digs, and senior outside hitter Angelina Majchrowicz had 19 kills and 15 digs.
For Andrean’s veterans like Nohos, who knew several players on the 2017 team that won the state title, the victory Saturday allowed them to wrap their arms around the elusive goal they’d been chasing for years — in the form of a trophy.
“The thing I’ve been wanting since seventh grade, since that last team did it, we finally did it,” Nohos said. “With all of the hard work we’ve put in over the summer and during practices, to accomplish our goal just feels amazing.”