2020 Quincy Blue Devil Sports Hall of Fame Inductee: 2009 girls volleyball team

(EDITOR’S NOTE: The 2020 and 2021 classes are being inducted into the Quincy Blue Devil Sports Hall of Fame together this year. The 2009 volleyball team will be inducted on Saturday, Nov. 27 before QHS’s boys basketball game.)

A decade after the Quincy High School volleyball program earned its first state trophy in record-setting fashion, a team capable of making its own history returned to the final four.

Bolstered by the Herald-Whig Player of the Year in senior setter Hannah Kvitle, the robust offensive attack of Brittany Houghton and the defensive strength of Sommer Holder and Abbie Foster, the Blue Devils finished with a 36-5 record, the second-best mark in program history. They went 10-0 in winning another Western Big Six Conference championship and two of their three regular-season losses were against teams that finished in the top four in their respective state tournaments.

The Blue Devils closed the regular season with six consecutive victories and rolled through the postseason, winning five consecutive straight-set matches to get to the Class 4A state tournament. They allowed fewer than 15 points in four of those 10 sets.

The Blue Devils finished fourth at the state tournament at Redbird Arena, losing a three-set slugfest against Glenbrook South in the third-place match. Along the way, they won the 18th regional championship and fifth sectional title in program history.

The 2009 team included: Maddy Barnes, Alex Dietrich, Abbie Foster, Bethany Foster, India Green, Kaitlyn Hankins, Sommer Holder, Taylor Holtmeyer, Brittany Houghton, Hannah Kvitle, Michaela Llewellyn, Kayla Mast, Presley Melvin, Angela Shupe and Olivia Stuedle. The Blue Devils were coached by Barb Crist, Mike Crist, Jenna Buckner, Tiffany Rains and Jayme Rector. The managers were Mackenzie Barnes, Mariah Hoke, Courtney McGlaughlin and Kelsie Spangler.