When they were just freshmen at Providence, Demi Carbone, Abbey Knight, Delaney Purtill and Cali Tierney all were moved up to the varsity team.

They soon became known as the Fab Four.

Knight and Carbone have been the John and Paul of the group, being out in front and getting the most notoriety, while Purtill and Tierney equate to George and Ringo, providing a steady rhythm behind the scenes, without which, the group is not the same.

The group won a regional title as freshmen, then won the sectional crown as sophomores and juniors. However, their run stopped in the supersectional in each of those seasons.

When the first day of practice rolled around in early July of this year, the team - led by the Fab Four - told coach Lee Rucinski that they had one goal: Advance to the state finals.

They were able to make that goal a reality Monday night when they beat Washington 25-21, 25-18 on the Panthers’ home floor to send Providence to the state finals for the first time since 1995. It finally sunk in Tuesday at practice what they had accomplished.

“We’ve been waiting for this for so long,” Purtill said. “There was a lot of anticipation for the supersectional, and we got to where we want to be. It was nice to hear the congratulations in school today, and it was a relief to finally win that supersectional.

“It was definitely a focus for us to improve the culture when we started. Everyone has worked hard, and it’s great to see everybody on the team go all-in.”

Tierney is one of five Providence players with more than 100 kills on the season. The Wright State-bound Knight leads the way with 448, while Tierney has 199, Carbone has 161, sophomore Kennady Kotowski has 109 and classmate Lily Lipke has 107. In addition to her kills, Carbone has a team-high 460 assists, with Purtill right behind at 305.

Sophomore libero Maddie Johnson leads the team with 286 digs, with Knight collecting 205 and Tierney 200. Senior Grace Lustig has a team-high 49 blocks, while Lipke has 33, Knight and Kotowski have 26 each and Carbone has 18.

“We are confident every time we go out and play,” Tierney said. “We know that the rest of the team has our backs, and we have theirs. It felt kind of surreal after we won Monday night, like it didn’t sink in until we came to school today and then we had a practice to go to.

“We have worked hard, and we make each other work hard in practice. No one gets mad when we push them. They want to get better. Everyone is on board with what we want to do and has bought in.”

For Rucinski, it has been four years of watching a team work toward its collective goal.

“This is my sixth year here,” he said. “The first year was COVID, but we have won five straight regionals since. These four have some historical stats, wins and state placement, and this year was about what kind of legacy they are going to leave. We want them to be the players that the junior high kids that come to see them play want to be when they get older, and the kind of people they look up to. They have embraced the leadership and took ownership of the program.

“They have made this a player-driven program, and that has been great to see. They wanted to get to state and they have really set a strong foundation for the program going forward.”

The Celtics (34-6) will take on Nazareth Academy (21-17) at 4 p.m. Friday at Illinois State University’s CEFCU Arena, while Normal U-High (36-4) will play Prairie Ridge (32-7) in the other semifinal at 5:30.

“We didn’t see any of the other teams in the regular season,” Rucinski said. “It’s nice to see new teams. We do know that Nazareth is a solid team and they play with a lot of energy. There will be no quit in them.

“We just want to concentrate on playing a clean game and quieting down the high-energy teams. That has been our strength during the postseason. Everyone at state is good enough to win it. We know we can be tough to hang with if we are playing clean and not beating ourselves.”