Marist senior Molly Murrihy had a recurring dream all season.
In them she was at Redbird Arena, competing in the state championship match.
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“It usually went that we’d get there and I never knew who won,” she said. “We’d get to the final few points and it was a super close game, and then I’d wake up. It was pretty crazy.”
Dreams became reality on the final night when Marist beat Minooka 22-25, 25-22, 25-15 to earn the program’s first Class 4A state title.
Guess who had kills on two of the final three points, including the last one?
“I could not have told you in a million years that I would have gotten the game-winning point,” Murrihy said with a laugh. “It was a surreal feeling.”
For the Daily Southtown 2017 Girls Volleyball Player of the Year, it was the perfect ending to a dream season.
Murrihy, a Memphis recruit, was a multipurpose leader for the RedHawks.
The 6-foot setter broke the school single-season record for assists with 1,132. She drove defenses to distraction with 130 kills — most of them on surprising, well-placed tips.
On defense, Murrihy stood tall at the net with 132 blocks. She even contributed 206 digs to Marist’s cause.
She was the main communicator, the glue, the backbone of a RedHawks team that will finish No. 2 in the PrepVolleyball.com national rankings behind Walton, Ga.
“What she has done to connect our whole team this year is unbelievable,” Marist coach Jordan Vidovic said. “Early on in the preseason, she pushed herself insanely hard to not just be the same thing she always was — a great setter — but to take over the game and run the fastest offense around.”
She was the X-factor for the RedHawks as a blocker.
“We played big-time hitters,” Vidovic said. “We put Molly up against all of them. We did it against Minooka, we did it against Marian, we did it against McAuley. To crack 130 blocks as a setter is amazing.
“She has been one of the top blocking setters I’ve seen in high school, period. She is 100 percent the best setter in the state this year.”
Teammate Savannah Thompson said the communication between Murrihy and her setting targets was as strong mentally as it was verbally.
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“There is more to volleyball connection than just the talking aspect,” Thompson said. “It’s knowing where your teammates are. When you’re not talking, you look them in the eyes knowing they’re going to give you the ball that you need, and they look at you knowing you’re going to put the ball away.
“Knowing that she had the confidence in me like I have confidence in her, I’ve really been able to see her grow as we grew as a team. It was really special to have that connection.”
Murrihy has been all about volleyball from the day she stepped into Marist as a freshman. But prior to that, she was a multisport athlete.
“Being in other sports when I was younger taught me a lot of lessons,” Murrihy said. “Being brought up around so many different atmospheres, you can learn so many things just about being a good teammate and a good person.”
To say nothing of being a leader. Murrihy had that down pat. When the match was on the line, there was no cooler customer on the court for the RedHawks.
Everybody could depend on Molly, and it usually turned out with a positive result.
“I guess a lot of people would say it’s a lot of pressure, but it kind of gives me a lot of confidence,” Murrihy said. “A lot of people depending on me, in my opinion, means that they know I can get the job done and they expect me to get the job done.
“It gives me a lot of confidence that they believe in me. As long as I know my team believes in me, then I believe in myself.”
Twitter @tbaranek