Lakeview handles York in straight sets to claim 2025 Central Conference volleyball tournament championship

AURORA, Neb. - Earning some revenge from a defeat two nights earlier, Columbus Lakeview (26-4) took care of York (15-16) in straight sets (25-19, 25-15) to emerge as the champions of the 2025 Central Conference Volleyball Tournament on Saturday afternoon in the Aurora Sports Complex.

With Lakeview entering the week of the tournament with the best overall record, the Vikings held the field's #1 seed and were seeded into the same pool as the Dukes, ranked #6 in the nine-team field. But York sprung the upset of Lakeview earlier in the week, pulling out a 26-24 win in the third set to claim the pool crown.

That win elevated York to the #3-seed entering bracket play Saturday, and it knocked Lakeview down to #4. But after Lakeview defeated Aurora and Adams Central and York survived two more three-setters against both Seward and GI Northwest, that set the stage for Vikings vs. Dukes for the second time in about 48 hours - this time, with a tournament title on the line. 

And this time, the Vikings made no mistake. Senior Katie Rowe acknowledged after the match that her team had revenge on their collective minds, and they played that way on Saturday afternoon. York scored the first point of both sets, but the Dukes held a lead at only one other point in the match (3-2 in the second) in a comprehensive performance from Lakeview, one of the top teams in Class B in the latest NCN volleyball rankings. 

Lakeview's set one performance was systematic: they never broke off a giant scoring run, but scored three in a row on three different occasions to steadily pull away and win the set 25-19. Set two was even more comprehensive: with the score tied 5-5, Lakeview then jumped ahead 13-7, and York was never able to make up the difference in a 25-15 Lakeview victory.

Lakeview has featured an extremely balanced offense all season and that was on full display Saturday, with Rallie Boyer, Calli Helms and Rowe all recording double-digit kills, and all on very efficient hitting, and setter Grace Dawson engineered the offense very well as usual. York was steered on offense by the multi-faceted Kinslee Kern and on defense by Addison Andersen, but the Dukes collectively could not keep pace with the Vikings in their quest to hand them just their fifth loss of the season. The loss to York on Thursday meant Lakeview had to take a slightly different path to a title than they might have been expecting, but ultimately this week ends as many would have predicted, with the Central Conference's top team holding the volleyball tournament trophy. 

YORK (15-16)         0: 19 | 15

LAKEVIEW (26-4) 2: 25 | 25