The White Creek Lutheran volleyball team finished runner-up in the Indiana Lutheran Schools Athletic Association state tournament at Trinity Lutheran. Pictured are, front row from left, Charlotte Otte, Ruth Busher, McKinley Ross, Deandra Vandercar; and back row, assistant coach Lindsey Von Fange, Lila Jung, Sophie Engelau, Ella Van Fange, Annie Kleffman and head coach David Theile. Not pictured is Lauren Campbell.
Submitted photo
White Creek Lutheran had been knocking at the door of making the Indiana Lutheran Schools Athletic Association state title game, but had come up just short a couple of times.
This year, the Wildcats were able to reach the final. They won six consecutive games before falling to the Central Lutheran Chargers from New Haven in the championship.
“The goals were to win it, and they were so close,” White Creek coach David Theile said. We got beat by a really good team. We’ve gotten third place or fourth place the past few years, but we couldn’t get to the highest level. We’re the smallest school in that whole group, so we don’t have as many girls to pick from. The odds are usually on the bigger schools.”
The Wildcats’ starters included eighth-graders Annie Kelffman, Deandra Vandercar, Ella Von Fange, Lila Jung and Sophie Engelau and sixth-grader McKinley Ross. Seventh-graders Ruth Busher, Charlotte Otte and Lauren Campbell also played key roles.
White Creek finished the season with a 20-7 record. Theile has been coaching 14 years, and this is the best the Wildcats have done in the ILSAA tournament.
“I think the girls worked so hard and listened to (assistant coach) Lindsey (Von Fange) and I,” Theile said. “I’m trying to continue to learn more and more myself, and we’re just figuring things out. We just put a lot of time in the gym. We’ve been blessed with good girls who are competitive. They do not give up. Even if we got down this year, we would come back. They responded well to pressure. They persevere. They have a lot of team camaraderie. We believe in praying. We want to have the right behavior. I feel like our girls did a great job representing their Christian values. I’m going to miss this group.”
