Notre Dame finishes second at state boys volleyball tournament

TOWN AND COUNTRY, Mo. -- The Notre Dame boys volleyball team knew the majority of Westminster's offense in the Class 3 state championship match Friday would go through Cameron Hibbler.

Unfortunately for the Bulldogs, knowing it and stopping it are two separate things.

Hibbler pounded down a match-high 24 kills for state tournament host Westminster to lead the Wildcats to a 25-22, 25-19 win over Notre Dame. It was a stark contrast to a convincing straight set win that the Bulldogs had March 28 over Westminster.

"We had a game plan in place and we kind of missed some blocking assignments and some defensive assignments," Notre Dame coach Mark Moore said. "We knew he (Hibbler) was going to get his kills, we just needed to try to limit it. Really we just needed to make a couple of plays each game and that could have been the difference."

While Hibbler's swinging did the majority of the damage, his serve proved to be the back-breaker for Notre Dame.

The Bulldogs had a chance to take the second set as Hibbler rotated to the back line with the set tied 19-19. But a Notre Dame hitting error sent Hibbler to the service line, where he put down three aces to bring the set to match point. Westminster's Michael Thoenen finished it with his third block of the match.

"I don't think we took advantage enough when Hibbler was in the back row," Moore said. "We needed to outscore them more when Hibbler was in the back row and we just didn't do that consistently. We did that in a few rotations, but we just didn't do it enough."

Behind three Hibbler kills, Westminster started the first set on a 4-1 run.

Notre Dame's John Fennewald answered with three kills of his own to swing the lead to the Bulldogs at 11-8.

Notre Dame (24-9) spent the majority of the first set ahead, but could never get more than three points of separation. Rhett Simmons had five kills for the Bulldogs in the opening set to go along with Fennewald's four.

A Hibbler kill gave Westminster (26-11-1) a 22-21 lead, but a Simmons kill tied it for Notre Dame. Hibbler answered with two straight kills and a Westminster block sent the match to the second set.

"Before the game, coach's game plan was just focus on our side of the court, don't make errors on our side," Fennewald said. "I think we made a few too many errors tonight for us and that was the outcome."

Notre Dame erased an early 6-1 deficit in the second set with a 10-1 run. Austin Williams started the comeback with a pair of kills and three kills by Tyler Allen gave the Bulldogs an 11-7 lead.

Five Hibbler kills sparked a 6-0 run to give Westminster a 16-13 lead. Hibbler actually had more kills (13) in the second set than Westminster setter Ricky Brenneman had assists (12).

"To be honest, they were a great team," Hibbler said. "They played their hearts out and they gave us a run for our money, but we never quit. We never let the ball touch the ground. We just kept running our plays and putting the ball down."

A pair of Fennewald kills and two Westminster hitting errors evened the set at 19-19, before Hibbler stepped to the service line.

"We played hard," Fennewald said. "I could not have asked for a better team to play with, better guys, a better coach. We played hard, they just came out on top. The main thing I'm going to take away is the pride I have in Notre Dame. After the game, looking over to see everyone, all the support we had, even on the road, it was just unbelievable."

Simmons led Notre Dame with eight kills and Allen added three. Evan Landewee had 17 assists.

Fennewald had six kills, an assist, three blocks and an ace in his final match for the Bulldogs.

"He's a guy that refuses to lose," Moore said. "He's going to lay it out on the floor for you every single night and tonight's no exception. He had a really terrific match and I'm really going to miss him next year."

In just its second year as a program, Notre Dame became the first non-St. Louis area team to compete for a state championship in boys volleyball. The sport does not have an officially-sanctioned Missouri State High School Activities Association state tournament because there are too few qualifying teams, but Notre Dame's addition of the sport is part of expansion efforts.

"It's all about the work ethic and how hard they tried and how much they have bought into what I've been trying to teach them," Moore said. "Fundamentals and discipline and the stuff we work on every day, it's not glory work, but it gets the job done."

Fennewald hopes Notre Dame's run will encourage other area schools to start boys volleyball programs.

"We're a good team, we can play volleyball," Fennewald said. "I'm really hoping more teams will start up in Southeast Missouri so we can show up and show that we can play."