Montini's Bogdan, Kuykendall don't let opportunity pass
This was supposed to be the best chance to get Montini. It was supposed to be the best chance to keep the Broncos from going downstate, maybe even from winning a sectional.
They knew it, too.
"For me and Kelsey (Bogdan), the only two seniors, it was different not playing with Kelly (Karlis), Kateri (Stone) and Sara (Ross)," Montini senior Rainey Kuykendall said of her graduated teammates after Monday's supersectional victory sent the Broncos downstate for a sixth straight year anyway. "And a lot of people thought we weren't going to be as good because we weren't playing with three (Division I) kids that were mainly our focal point last year.
"But me and Kelsey have learned how to be leaders on the team, and we have a lot of younger kids who help out because we can't just do it ourselves."
"And I think for me I played behind the three of them and they teach you the whole way of success," Bogdan added. "This year it's felt more on us."
Bogdan will play at Harvard next year.
But first they will play in the Class 3A semifinals again, with a chance to win the program's fifth state championship in the last six years.
It's not that other teams missed an opportunity. It's that this team really is good enough to play downstate.
"They were with those girls for three years, and now they're standing on their own by themselves," Nichols said of his two seniors. "And that's rewarding as a coach to see them be rewarded and maybe get the credit they deserve."
It hasn't always been easy. They didn't win their own tournament. They lost three of six games when Kaylee Bambule was injured during the tournament. They say those losses only made them better.
"We had a little bump in the road during the middle of the year, during winter, we lost a couple of games, but we had to realize that wasn't the end of the world. We still had playoffs," Kuykendall said.
"I really feel like we learned from all of our losses during the season, and now we know what we have to do in big games," Bogdan added.
And just because they've been to Redbird Arena so much, they're not claiming any advantage.
"When you get in that arena anything is possible," Nichols said, a point his players agreed with. "This team, really what do they have to lose? They've already lost five games. Nobody thinks they'd be any good anyways. And they have a chip on their shoulder. It comes down to if you play basketball and if you play well and we do what we're supposed to do, and we're prepared for the game, we'll put ourselves in position to win. We usually do."
Even if the Montini players don't get as many individual accolades as they might get elsewhere.
"All these guys could be all-conference or all-staters somewhere else, and they give that up for the possibility of putting a medal around their neck," Nichols said. "It doesn't stop them from getting recruited, it doesn't stop them from getting looked at."