It wasn’t the ending that Nemaha Central wanted, but it was certainly progress and a record setting season that ended with a fourth place finish at the Class 3A State Tournament Saturday in Emporia.  The three-time defending Big 7 champs were making their third state appearance and managed to get out of pool play for the first time, while setting a school record with 42 wins.  However, after winning their first two matches at state against Silver Lake (25-19, 25-23) and Erie (25-13, 25-9), the Thunder dropped their final three matches of the season to Hesston (25-20, 25-19), then a heartbreaker to Cheney in Saturday morning semifinal (25-27, 29-27, 25-19) before running out of steam in a third place setback against Hesston 25-23, 25-7. 

After winning a tie-break to advance out of pool play, Nemaha started strong Saturday and a Laura Macke block led to a pair of serves by Ashley Larkin to close the first set win against Cheney 27-25.  Again in the second game, neither team ever led by more than four points and the Thunder had match point opportunities at 25-24 and 26-25 before the Cardinals rallied for the 29-27 win.  Nemaha got ahead 10-6 in the third game, but Cheney went on a five-point-run to lead 11-10 and not look back.  The game was tied at 15 before Cheney went ahead for good.  Jacy Dalinghaus played a solid match with multiple points and Riley Bontrager had back-to-back aces early in the third set to give the Thunder the 8-5 lead. 

The Thunder tried to regroup from the heart-breaking loss and competed well in the first set before falling 25-23 against Hesston in the third place match but completely ran out of energy in the final set falling down 19-3 despite multiple timeouts and substitutions before a 25-7 final.  Seven super seniors ended their season, but Coach Jessica Koch, who surpassed 500-career wins this season, will return four senior starters for next year.