Sebeka Girls’ Volleyball Preps for 1st Trip to State Since 2015

After opening this season 6-6, Sebeka girls’ volleyball has sunk 18 of their last 19 opponents – including two-time defending Section 5A champs Pine River-Backus – en route to the Trojans’ second ever section title.

From a 45-36 total set count last year to a 67-21 set count thus far, the Trojans have been surprising everyone this year but themselves.

“I think our record is definitely surprising. I think it surprised most teams around us,” said senior setter Jaylin Lillquist. “But I think going into this season, we all had the goal and we knew that we’d have a really good record. We have a solid group of seniors who’ve been playing together for a long time, so we have a lot of trust and just our communication on the court has really helped us break through this season.”

That trust amongst the girls has helped elevate the Trojans’ passing and defense to the next level.

“Our passing has been a big factor for us this year,” stated senior libero Ellie Ness. “When we are in system, that’s when things happen and when we can get good hits and kills.”

“I love how our team is so scrappy, it really can wear down the other teams,” said senior right-side hitter Miranda Lillquist. “Then the rest of the players have that motivation to never let the ball drop and we just keep it in play.”

And on top of keeping the ball in play, the Trojans know how to also put it away as while Miranda leads the front court attack, everybody eats for Sebeka.

Senior outside hitter Samantha Stevens explained, “The other team knowing they can’t just set up on one person – we have a whole team full of good hitters, so having that ability to be able to go to anywhere and Jaylin not just having to force it to go to one place, having everybody being able to hit is really good for our team and it’s really helped.”

From a 15-10 record and a quarterfinals exit courtesy of Nevis in 2023 to dropping only one set in their entire Section 5A playoff run, Trojans volleyball flipped a switch this year. What jump-started that – and what’s fueling them all the way to their upcoming matchup against Mayer-Lutheran – is confidence.

That confidence factor, just knowing like, we kind of adopted the motto this year of ‘winners win,’ and we’re winners and we win,” added Annika Pulju, senior outside hitter. “[We] drew the number one seed. Again, we’re there for a reason and we’re here to play.”

Sebeka holds the 8 seed for the Class A State Tournament. They will look to extend their 14-game winning streak Thursday against top-seeded Mayer Lutheran.