It’s back-to-back state titles for the Waterloo Junior High School volleyball program.

The WJHS eighth grade spikers defeated Mt. Carmel, Highland and Mascoutah on Saturday in Pinckneyville to win the Southern Illinois Junior High School Athletic Association Class L state championship.

Waterloo finished with an overall record of 20-9 on the season. The team advanced to state by virtue of taking down Emge Middle School and Belleville Central Junior High School to win a regional title. 

This year’s group of WJHS eighth graders was special to first-year head coach Holly Garrett.

“When they entered our program their sixth grade year, I was the sixth grade coach at the time,” she said. “By circumstance, I took over the seventh grade position when they became seventh graders and again moved up to head coach their eighth grade year.  So, I’ve had the pleasure of working closely with this group since they first started playing the game.”

Garrett said shes enjoyed watching these players grow in the sport.  

“We had a roller coaster of a season with highs and lows,” she said. “These players are competitors.  They want to win, but we struggled maintaining momentum when things didn’t seem to be going our way.  Momentum is such a powerful aspect of volleyball.”

Garrett said that throughout the course of the season, she had talks with her players about staying mentally tough when things don’t go their way.

“Going into the state tournament, I knew they could win,” Garrett said. “They just needed to be confident, consistent and not let mistakes or the scoreboard get to them mentally. Right before taking the court for our first game against Mr. Carmel, I reminded them that the skill was there – all they needed to do was to take the momentum of the game and not let up.” 

They did just that, beating Mt. Carmel in two games.

Waterloo’s next game was against Highland.

“We had a bit of a slower start to this game, but the girls dug deep, turned things around and ended up also winning again in two games,” Garrett said. “The girls went into the championship game against Mascoutah ready to play.  We knew Mascoutah has a strong outside hitter, so from the start of the game we made a couple of defensive adjustments.”

Garrett said her girls made the adjustments, listened to suggestions from the coaching staff and played a “phenomenal” match.

Waterloo downed Mascoutah in two games for the state title.

“It was a remarkable day. Not only did they win the championship title, but they did so without losing one set the entire day,” Garrett said. “I couldn’t have been more proud of them.” 

Garrett praised her squad as “incredibly coachable, hard working and just great kids,” both on and off the court. 

“I look forward to working with them as high school players,” Garrett said. 

Players on the state-winning squad were Mya Reifschneider, Jensyn Collmeyer, Reagan Wilhelm, Addie Stell, Katie Neikirk, Delaney Ullrich, Makayla Gummersheimer, Lilly Walster, Taylor Flinn, Sophie Brewer, Kaylee Stein and Alyssa McClory.

Last year’s WJHS eighth grade volleyball squad went 27-1 under head coach Katie Esker to win the SIJHSAA Class L state title.