By MATT PIKE
The Rock Port Blue Jays volleyball team last made it to the state Final Four in 1993, finishing fourth. In 2026, the Blue Jays made history, bringing home the first Class 1 State Championship in program history.
Rock Port battled back and forth with Valle Catholic, winning a five set thriller at the Civic Arena in downtown St. Joseph, one night after beating Billings in straight sets in semifinals. Head Coach Stephanie Parsons says it's hard to put the feelings into words about how exciting it is to see her team accomplish a state championship.
"If I could it would come out as a lot of screams, you can ask the coaches it came out as a lot of not actual words out there," Parsons tells reporters after the match. "To bring this home for Blue Jay nation, that's a big deal, this team has worked so hard, it was the whole coaching staff, it was the whole team, that whole student section, the whole community coming here and making it feel like we're playing at home today."
No set was easy for Rock Port as they could never seem to pull away from Valle Catholic. The Blue Jays opened the match winning the first set 25-19, before dropping the second set 26-24. The ebbs and flows of the match were high a majority of the time, when one team punched the other punched back quickly. Junior Braylyn Wood says the message from Parson through the match, was to just keep pushing.
"Be the first to five, 10, 15, and just letting certain balls go and moving to the next," Wood explains. "Not giving up, because this is our game."
Rock Port won the third set 27-25 but fell in the fourth set by the same score, forcing the fifth set to 15. After initially going back and forth once again in the final set, the Blue Jays were able to briefly pull away before the Warriors started to rally back, but ultimately Rock Port went on to win the set, and the match, winning 15-11 with Wood delivering the decisive kill.
Wood recorded 32 kills while Kinley Lair had 15 and Stevie Gaines had 12. Gaines also had 34 assists along with Raylynn Jenkins 26 assists. The lone senior on the squad Tatum Vogler had 12 digs. For Vogler, this was an incredible way to close out her Blue Jays career.
"I don't know I'm at a loss of words, it hasn't really hit me yet but this is probably one of the best feelings ever," Vogler says. "And it feels great to be a senior and go out on a big win with my friends and everything, this is amazing."
Rock Port finishes the season 37-4-1. The Blue Jays graduate just one senior and return 11 players next season, along with an incoming group of freshman, set up in good position to make another run back to St. Joseph in 2027.
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