JOHNSON - Heading into the tournament, Johnson-Brock was looking for its first conference championship in five years.  In the first round, the #2 seeded Eagles faced the #7 seeded Nebraska City Lourdes Knights, after the Knights defeated Southern earlier in the evening to advance. JB was able to come out on top with a 2-0 win over the Knights 25-14, 25-18.


Tuesday night, the #6 seeded Exeter-Milligan Friend (EMF) Bobcats and the Johnson-Brock Eagles went head to head in a game that went five thrilling sets. EMF took the first set 27-25, but the Eagles battled back to pull away in the second set for a 25-17 victory.  The third set was close, but EMF came out on top 25-21. 


The fourth set was back and forth early on, but EMF maintained the lead most of the way. With the score being 23-17, JB down by six, the Eagles knew they a huge hill to climb but they never lost hope. The Eagles managed to close the gap to 24-20. Senior, Natalie Knipplmeyer, served six in a row to battle back and win the set 26-24. 

 


Going into set five, both teams were showing some fatigue, but the Eagles used the momentum from the last set to capture a dominating win 15-4. The Eagles would win the match and advance to the championship game on Saturday. 

The 2023 Pioneer Conference Championship game featured the #2 seeded Johnson-Brock Eagles and #4 seeded Tri-County Trojans.  The Eagles were able to get the win in three sets 25-21, 25-17, 25-18 to bring home a Pioneer Conference Championship for the first time since 2018. 

 

 

 

Johnson-Brock's head coach, Cara Williams, states how beyond proud she is of the team and how they came together and displayed true teamwork during the entire Conference Tournament! Coach Williams added, "the team stayed mentally tough through it all and that makes a huge difference! They could have gave up Tuesday while playing EMF with being down in the 4th set, but they came together and were determined to win that set to take it into the 5th, and ultimately they never looked back! We've been talking a lot about the intangibles of volleyball: effort, attitude and communication. I could definitely tell they brought all these with them this tournament and it made a huge difference in how they played together as a team. They had a goal in mind and made sure they did exactly what they needed to do to reach that goal. Now, it's time to work towards the next goals!"