For almost as long as she can remember, Cissna Park senior outside hitter Addison Lucht has had the same goal – bringing an IHSA state championship trophy home.

“It’s been my dream since I was little, just coming to the high school to watch the high schoolers play,” Lucht said. “I was just waiting on my moment, and now that I finally have that opportunity to play for a state championship, to bring one home would mean everything.”

Lucht, the back-to-back Daily Journal Girls Volleyball Player of the Year, has earned multiple All-State awards in not just volleyball, but basketball, softball and track and field. The Northwestern softball commit is one of three seniors to start on the Timberwolves three-straight state volleyball teams, along with Josie Neukomm and Sophie Duis, and helped the girls basketball team to state last year as well.

The one accolade that’s eluded Lucht and the Timberwolves is that state championship trophy, as the Class 1A powers took fourth in volleyball two years ago and third last year, as well as a third-place girls basketball finish last year.

But as they prepare for Friday morning’s state semifinal clash with Tremont, the Timberwolves have a good feeling that this is their year. Part of that is because they’ve accumulated a 38-1 record, earning 33 of those wins in straight sets, with their lone loss coming to Class 4A Bolingbrook.

But part of it is from the sour taste the last two teams left Normal’s CEFCU Arena with after coming up just short.

“Just how things have gone the last few years,” Lucht said is why she and her teammates feel more motivated. “Yes, we’ve been happy, but our group, we always want to end on top. Not being able to do that the last two years really fuels our fire.”

As they’ve built up their reputation as the latest, and maybe even greatest, group to come through a small-but-storied Cissna Park program, a senior class that’s nine deep and complimented by vital younger stars like juniors Mady Marcott, Annika Stadeli and Ava Henrichs and standout sophomores like Kendyl Neukomm, Ella Schluter and Marina Day has come together behind a Cissna Park community that will leave no empty seats in the gym, wherever their Timberwolves may be playing.

“Look at the kids, look at the crowd we have here tonight,” Timberwolves coach Josh Landon said following Monday’s Heyworth Supersectional win over Windsor/Stewardson-Strasburg. “It’s a community thing. They’re going out and reading to the elementary kids in the classroom. They’re all in on the school, all in on the community.”

As much as the town has gotten behind them, opposing teams want to be the ones to take them down that much more. They’ve spent all season dodging the best shots opponents can throw at them, something Josie Neukomm said has made them better in the long run.

“Even against a team that may be seen as lesser, we have to bring our A game,” Josie Neukomm said. “You never know what to expect, especially at this level. Nothing is going to come and be given to you, you always have to work for it. We always have a target on our backs and I think we embrace it.”

Cissna Park faces Tremont at 10:30 a.m. Friday at CEFCU Arena in Normal. The other semifinal consists of Stockton and Norris City-Omaha-Enfield. The two winners will face off at 10:30 a.m. Saturday for the state championship, which follows the third-place game at 9 a.m.