Lansing volleyball wins first-ever state title

If there’s one thing Lansing knows how to do, it’s winning state championships. Entering this school year, the Bobcats won eight state titles this century, most recently in 2018 with boys soccer’s second straight crown. Five years on from that triumph, volleyball became the latest team to forever etch themselves into the history books.

The Bobcats captured their first state title on November 19 in Glens Falls with a three-set victory over Section III’s Westhill in the Class B final. The championship was secured with a kill from Emma Best, and she described how it felt to help the Bobcats achieve immortality.

“It’s amazing,” Best said. “It’s a feeling that I’d never thought I’d ever feel. It’s something so surreal that I’m so happy to be able to join my teammates in this excellent feeling.”

Best has been at the core of the Bobcats’ recent success as part of three straight sectional titles, and each year they’ve progressed further and further in the state tournament. In 2021, the Bobcats won the first of those titles in Class C but lost in regionals to Dobbs Ferry. The following season, they repeated as Class C champions and beat Skaneateles to reach the state final four in Glen Falls, but they were eliminated in pool play. Those experiences were invaluable in helping Lansing win it all.

“I think for us it was just a motivating factor,” Best said. “Yeah we were nervous, but we’ve been here and we were definitely super confident that we can do it. The seven new people on the team picked up their loads. They played amazing roles in getting there. I definitely had some people look at me and say, ‘I’m so scared. I don’t know what to do.’ You got here. You are the reason that we are here, so just push and stay confident and do what you know how to do.”

What made this run even more remarkable was just how dominant the Bobcats were along the way. They did not drop a single set during both the sectional and state tournaments. In fact, most of the sets weren’t particularly close. Out of the 19 sets, only two went past the 25 points needed to win. Lansing absolutely played their best volleyball when it mattered most.

“Everyone on this team has such a great bond,” Best said. “I think that was something that powered us through. We had a little dip in energy all throughout the middle of the season. We were all tired. But I think every single person on this team pushed other people in practices and games to just work as hard as they could. I think that really helped because every time we stepped on the court, we knew that we could get it done and we had utter confidence in our teammates and in ourselves to do it.”

It wasn’t all smooth sailing for the Bobcats. They suffered defeats in the regular season and in the IAC Championship to Trumansburg, who made a phenomenal run of their own all the way to the state semifinals. They also were without their star setter Palmer for a couple of matches in the middle of the season due to injury. The Bobcats were at first unsure of how they would do without a player who was part of the team since seventh grade. But it was at that moment that Best knew something special was brewing.

“I think to play those games without her, we realized how much depth we had on this team,” Best said. “I realized that there wasn’t one person on that team that couldn’t go on that court and make a difference. I think that’s really the time that I realized that we could go further than we ever had before and make school history like we did.”

Best also praised head coach Nicole Lamie for helping the team reach their full potential and establish them as one of the top programs not just in the section, but in the entire state.

“She’s pushed us all the way through,” Best said. “Since a couple of us did club [volleyball] starting in seventh grade through her and with her, she just made us fall in love with volleyball. I think that the program has changed and has pushed because she really has made it not just a fun sport to be around ad a place to go and escape from the rest of life, but she also just makes us fall in love and want to win and not just for her and for our teammates, but also for ourselves.”

In the near future, a banner will hang inside the Lansing High School gymnasium to signify this unforgettable accomplishment. Like that banner, the memories that the Bobcats made along the way will be everlasting.

“I’m so proud of where we’ve gotten,” Best said. “I think I’ll remember how close we were and that any person on this team—the ones that graduate this year or the ones that are still there—can do so much. I’m going to be so happy to watch them all grow and become amazing people.”