Lakota reaches first district final since 2010

FREMONT — When Lakota's seniors were freshmen, the Raiders were coming off a five-win season and proceeded to finish with another losing record. Three years later, they'll come back to the Fremont Ross gymnasium on Thursday night to play in a district final. "We never thought this," senior setter Emma Gregg said. "Since freshman year, our program has gotten progressively better every year." The third-seeded Raiders (20-5) secured a spot in the D-IV Fremont district championship match with a 25-20, 26-24, 20-25, 25-20 win over fourth-seeded Danbury (15-10) on Tuesday night. "The girls want it, I want it," Lakota coach Maddison Baacke said. "It's just the team-building and getting a lot of reps and being consistent and the girls working hard. We have a good senior class and a good freshman class, so that really helps build that." Cassidy Foos led the offense with 14 kills. Brooklyn "Queen" Beard had 13, and Riley King added 12. "Being able to make it this far means a lot to us," Gregg said. The Raiders haven't played this deep in the tournament since their 2010 district championship squad. They've mounted quite the program turnaround since a winless 2016 season. They only averaged six wins a season in the three years that followed that, then improved to 10 wins in 2020. Lakota has now strung together three consecutive winning seasons and reached the 20-win plateau for the first time since that regional team 13 years ago. "With new talent coming up, you think you're losing somebody and then there's someone to step right back into that spot," Gregg said. On Tuesday night, the Raiders' defense won it the match. Dig stats weren't available afterward, but libero Aubrey Vitte, defensive specialist Grace Harmon, Foos and Gregg all certainly had a bunch. "We have a pretty solid defense," Baacke said. "Our defense all around is probably our strongest suit. We practice it a lot with them." In both the first and second sets as Lakota raced out to a 2-0 lead, Danbury found plenty of big swings. But the Lakers rarely got the ball to the floor. "If we let balls drop in practice, we're running," Gregg said. "We make sure there's not a ball hitting the floor without a body hitting the floor." The first set was relatively straightforward for the Raiders. They relied on middle hitters Beard and King to set the tone. Beard, a freshman, had multiple massive finishes in the first set. "She's been unbelievable," Gregg said. "Teams know we're gonna go to her… We have to be able to move them around the net and mix in other girls and throw off their defense as well." The match hinged on the second set. A resilient Danbury, also relying on a big middle hitter tandem of Maggie Thompson and Mia McDonald, surged ahead and held set point at 24-21. But Lakota won the next five points — Beard kill, double hit, Beard kill, Foos kill, Foos kill — and made the journey back too tough for the Lakers. "I've got to hand it to Lakota," Danbury coach Keith Diebler said. "I was impressed with them defensively." Danbury did win the third, going on an extended 12-5 run in the middle of the set to push its way back into the match. But that was as close as the Lakers would get. "We went in between the third and fourth set and knew we just needed to bring back the momentum," Foos said. "We cleaned it up in the fourth set, which helped us a lot." Alia Nesselroad's kill started a 4-0 run to open the third, and Lakota held leads as big as 7-2 and then 13-5 after two King kills. Beard made it 16-10 and 17-12 and 18-14 with two kills and a block. King had three more kills in the closing run, which also included swings to the floor from Foos and Beard. "We can count on all of our hitters," Baacke said. "We do a lot of practicing to keep the ball alive. This year is our first year having really strong offense and defense, which has helped us win a lot of games." Beard put the match away, and the Raiders sprinted onto the court to celebrate. They'll get this district's giant on Thursday in the form of top-seeded Calvert, which swept Old Fort in Tuesday's first semifinal. Lakota's set scores this season against the Senecas: 7-9-10 and 12-17-17. But regardless of what happens, the Raiders have already made the climb to such a big stage. They're going to be sure to enjoy it. "Our last year playing together without ever getting to play on these floors again, it's just special to go this far," Gregg said.