LINCOLN — Mullen claimed its first volleyball state championship on Saturday while denying Wynot its second in the process.
The Broncos consistently put together lengthy runs to sweep the defending Class D2 state champions 25-18, 25-11, 25-15 at the Devaney Sports Center.
Mullen (33-2) hit .272 compared to .033 for the Blue Devils with Jenna Donohoe leading the Broncos with 13 kills and Abigail Gracey adding 10.
“We struggled a little bit at the beginning with serve and pass, and we couldn’t get a good first ball,” Wynot coach Tristan Wieseler said. “That kind of impacted us in the other sets, too. We just weren’t able to get anything going offensively, and that started with our first contact.
“They have good servers, and kudos to them. They hit us in the seams and deep, and we were just never really able to get into a rhythm.”
Mullen got off to a slow start for the third straight match. This time, Wynot used an 8-2 run to go up 12-5 with the aid of kills by Tiara Sudbeck and Makenzie Foxhoven along with a Callie Stewart ace.
But after four errors and a net violation during that run, Mullen turned things around and started scoring points in bunches. Two runs of 7-0 and another of 5...