St. Vincent’s first-year girls’ volleyball coach Leeah Radil would have had a difficult time scripting a better ending for her Lady Indians (23-9-5), which won their fifth consecutive district title and first-ever state championship.
To hear her tell it, it was a difficult task given the caliber of athletes on her team.
“They work their butts off,” said Radil, who took over the team early in the season after an unexpected coaching change. “They come in every day ready to go. They wanted it and they got it. I’m super proud of those girls. They really do mean the world to me. They’re awesome.”
The Lady Indians, who finished third in Class 2 last season, were hungry for the title and led by a core group of six seniors — Alaina Cates, Kennedy Cissell, Clara Clifton, Brie Rubel, Kate Rubel, and Callie Schnurbusch — that left Radil more than a little impressed.
“My seniors are not only some of the best athletes, they genuinely are some of the best people you will meet,” Radil said. “They are the kindest girls with the biggest hearts, and are the best leaders I could have asked for. Coming into this, like two weeks into their season, a lot of them were discouraged. I think those seniors wanted it more than anything, and they put that fire into those other girls.”
Making that possible, she said, was the closeness of the team.
“The bond that they have with the underclassmen is unbelievable, Radil said. “I could get emotional talking about them. I seriously have so much love for them. They really stepped up when I needed them, and it’s awesome.”
In addition to helping the team reach its goal of a state title, Cates and Kate Rubel also hit impressive individual marks, with Cates topping 500 kills during the annual Hope Game against Perryville in October and Rubel topping 1,000 career digs in the state quarterfinal match against Valle Catholic on Nov. 1.
For the season, Rubel led the team with 426 kills, while Cates finished with 220. Clifton had 195. Brie Rubel led the team in digs, collecting 625 for the season, while Schnurbusch had 589, and Kate Rubel had 508. Cates finished with 57 blocks, including 27 solo, while Kate Rubel had 43, Cissell had 37, Brie Rubel had 24 and Cissell 22. On the serving side, Brie Rubel had 43 aces, Kate Rubel had 36, and Cates 26.
With those six leaving, Radil said she’s not sure what to expect next season, but that she’s not too worried.
“The girls that I have that are juniors right now, they are ready to step up, and you can tell that they are,” Radil said. “They’re another class of great athletes who are hungry again for that state title. Now that they have it once, they’re going to want it again. They’re going to be ready to work. They always put the work in for me, so I know that they’re ready for it.”
St. Vincent will likely be facing a new level of competition next season.
“I think we move up to Class 3 now,” Radil said. “I’m not positive, but I think that’s what I’ve heard. I think there definitely will be a lot of those Class 3 teams that made it into sectionals or made it out of their districts, those are teams that we played with and we hung with or we beat. I think it’s going to be a good challenge for them, but it’s also not going to be like we’re one of the bottom dogs. I feel like they will be able to compete in that class.”
As for this season, Radil said the origin of their success was easy to pinpoint.
“That whole team, they all stepped up,” Radil said. “It was really them working as a team. They all worked together. It was awesome.”
