Wolfpack Ladies Enjoy One Last Experience Together

​It’s never an easy feeling for athletes to accept that their playing career is drawing to an end. It does make it a bit easier knowing that you are wrapping up your career with your lifelong teammates by your side.

That’s how Elgin Public/Pope John’s Jordan Mescher, Liz Selting and Baylee Wemhoff were able to do it on Saturday when they wrapped up spectacular volleyball careers with strong performances in the Northeast Nebraska All-Star Volleyball Classic in Norfolk. An added bonus was they were able to perform one last time for their head coach, Tina Thiele-Blecher.

The trio put on a show, with Selting taking home MVP honors for the Dark Team and Mescher and Wemhoff combining to perform strong defense, just as they have their entire careers.

“It was a lot of fun,” said Wemhoff. “I had the honor to play with a bunch of other really good girls  and I also had the pleasure to play with Jordan and Liz one last time.”

“It was a lot of fun to get to play with Baylee and Jordan one last time, one last go around,” added Selting.

Just as they did throughout their careers, the three spent most of the game right next to each other on the floor, making it easy to mesh their playing styles with the other three girls on the floor.

“It was really nice,” Wemhoff said.

The four Wolfpack representatives have spent the last four years leading one of the most impressive runs in program history in a number of sports. It all came to a culmination this year when Thiele-Blecher, Selting, Mescher and Wemhoff led EPPJ to its first-ever state volleyball tournament berth, eventually completing the best finish in the history of Elgin volleyball, taking third at state.

Selting was the focal point of the offensive attack all season. She finished with 375 kills, far and away the best on the team. Her 42.3 kill percentage was the best of any Wolfpack girl to attempt more than 50 kills.

Wemhoff worked as essentially a backcourt specialist. As a server, she finished with 34 aces, finishing with a serve percentage of 96.2 percent. She also pulled up 123 digs on the season. However, where she really excelled was in setting up her teammates. She set up her hitters with 517 assists, an average of nearly six assists per set. 

Mescher was the team’s libero. She proved she could do a little bit of everything for the Wolfpack. She recorded 18 aces on the year, pulled up a team-high 355 digs - an average of nearly four digs per set and finished with 421 successful service receives.

Like clockwork, all three kept showing those talents in the Classic. The real challenge actually came for Thiele-Blecher. The leader of the incredible Wolfpack squads of recent years, Thiele-Blecher approaches the game with a very straightforward attitude, expecting - and receiving - the same attitude from her team. Once the all-star games came around, she had to force herself to relax a bit on that mindset.

“It was hard, I couldn’t talk enough. I had to be quiet,” she joked. “I had to keep telling myself ‘This is for fun, this is for fun.’”

One of the bright spots for the Wolfpack was getting to play alongside rivals that they had battled throughout the years from other powerhouse schools such as St. Mary’s and Chambers/Wheeler Central. 

“As the years went on, we were able to build a friendship with them,” noted Wemhoff.

“It was super cool to get to know them,” Selting added.

“It’s just fun being on their same team instead of on the receiving end because they are all really good,” said Mescher.

Now that the final points have been made in the Classic, the girls will now turn their sights on their future education. Wemhoff is preparing to attend Peru State in the fall for elementary education and special education. Selting and Mescher will both be attending Northeast to major in business administration. Selting will be the only one continuing an athletic career as she will join the Hawks’ volleyball team. As for Thiele-Blecher, Wolfpack fans will be happy to know she’s going nowhere.

“I’m staying in Elgin,” she said with a grin, much to the relief of Wolfpack Nation.

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