The Kings Knights are state champions again. Kings defeated top-ranked Rocky River Magnificat in four sets, 25-20, 19-25, 25-20, 25-13, on Saturday afternoon at Wright State University’s Nutter Center to win the Ohio High School Athletic Association Division II girls volleyball state championship — the second state title in program history, closing the season 25-3 and on a 21-match winning streak.
Sammi Wehrman powered the Knights with 26 kills, nine of them in the fourth set, as Kings scored the final nine points of the match to pull away from a Blue Streaks team that had tested them all afternoon. Kings had ridden a 20-match winning streak into the final, according to the Cincinnati Enquirer’s championship report, and Magnificat — the state’s top-ranked Division II team — pushed them to a fourth set before the Knights’ depth took over.
The first set set the tone: neither team led by more than two points until a Laura Raines ace and a Wehrman kill opened a 22-18 Kings lead, and kills by Wehrman and Anaiah Taylor closed it out, the Enquirer reported. Magnificat answered emphatically in the second set, hitting .414 with three aces on the way to a 22-13 lead; Kings cut the deficit to five before a Lauren Locker kill evened the match at a set apiece.
Serve receive was the subplot of the weekend. Kings gave up 10 aces in Friday’s semifinal and nine more to Magnificat on Saturday, yet never let the service runs compound. “Yesterday’s struggles in serve-receive were mostly with deep serves. Not that I’m happy getting aced, but I feel like it prepared us a bit for today because the teams were similar,” Kings head coach Amanda Meadows told the Cincinnati Enquirer. “I told them we’re going to start off a couple steps deeper so that we can open up, shape that ball back in and not get aced.”
A kill and a block from Taylor built the lead Kings needed to take the third set. In the fourth, Magnificat erased an early 7-1 deficit, but two Wehrman kills and three straight blocks from Taylor and senior setter Anabelle Seni opened a 20-13 lead, and the Knights never looked back. Taylor finished with seven block assists, junior Mallory Kirkendall added 11 digs and three aces, and Mia Sannella posted three kills, two aces and four block assists.
“They really stepped up. We talk a lot in practice about how everyone’s important to the team and that really shows how good of a team we are. We don’t have a key player. Our whole team is so well-rounded,” senior libero Kennady Horsley told the Cincinnati Enquirer. Freshman setter Dri Naranjo finished with 21 assists, six digs and two block assists — a remarkable line in a state final for a player who started the season learning the Knights’ offense.
The title completes a three-year arc for this group. Kings won the Division I state championship in 2023 in the program’s first state tournament appearance; Seni and Horsley are the only two players remaining from that group, while Wehrman and Naranjo — now freshmen — watched that run from the student section. Last season ended in a regional semifinal loss to Dublin Scioto. This year the Knights returned to state, beat Wadsworth in four sets in Friday’s semifinal, and finished the job Saturday.
“I told everybody after that trip (in 2023) that every coach deserves to have that journey once in their lifetime and I couldn’t wait to see what a second time would be like,” Meadows told the Cincinnati Enquirer. Seni, one of only two seniors on the roster, put the afternoon in simpler terms to the Enquirer: “I would describe it as family. Kings has been such a big part of my career volleyball-wise. Leaving this program on such a high note is gonna leave a huge impact on me and Kings.”
Saturday’s final was one of four state championships decided at the Nutter Center this weekend. Earlier in the tournament, Dalton won its first state title in five sets over Parkway and Fenwick beat Ottawa-Glandorf for its third state crown, while Tiffin Calvert swept Fort Loramie for a second straight title.
What we know — and what we’re still waiting on
What we know: Kings is the Division II state champion at 25-3, Wehrman’s 26 kills led all players, and the Knights graduate only two seniors — Seni and Horsley. What comes next is the offseason: with Naranjo already established at setter and hitters Raines and Wehrman and blockers Taylor and Sannella all returning, Kings opens next fall as the team to beat in Division II, and the program’s second gold trophy will be celebrated back in Kings Mills this week.