Move over South Suburban Conference volleyball powers and make room for Lakeville South. 

Top-seeded Lakeville South completed a season of dominance by avenging its only two losses of the season after recording a dramatic 25-16, 25-17, 14-25, 20-25, 15-10 victory over No. 2 Champlin Park in the Class AAAA championship match of the Minnesota State High School League’s Girls Volleyball State Tournament on Saturday, Nov. 9 at the Xcel Energy Center in downtown St. Paul. 

Sophomore setter Kaelyn Bjorklund engineered the play that will live forever in Lakeville South lore when she fired a pass to junior outside hitter Romi Chlebeck. With a powerful swing and a successful kill, the Cougars captured their first volleyball championship and joined an elite group. The South Suburban Conference now has five schools that have won big-school volleyball titles: Lakeville South, Lakeville North, Eagan, Shakopee and Apple Valley. 

Chlebeck finished with 20 kills and sophomore hitter Elleora Utecht added 17. The Cougars (32-2) needed all of them as they had to fend off the Rebels (30-4). 

It looked like a sweep might be in the making when Lakeville South raced past Champlin Park in the first two sets. But Champlin Park, which owned two victories over the Cougars this season, battled back to even the match at two sets apiece. In the decisive fifth set, Lakeville South pulled away and made program history. 

Lakeville South opened the season with 17 consecutive victories. Then came a two-set loss to Champlin Park during an invitational on Sept. 7.  Two weeks later, it was another two-set loss to the Rebels. That was followed by a 12-match winning streak to end the season. 

Senior outside hitter Carly Gilk had 22 kills for the Rebels.