History was on the line for both Lockport and Benet in Friday night’s Class 4A state semifinal at CEFCU Arena.

Lockport was making its second consecutive state semifinal appearance, but a victory would send the Porters to the state championship for the first time since 1993.

Benet has won five state titles since 2011, but none since 2019 and has finished runner-up three years running, losing twice to Mother McAuley before being bested by Marist last year.

Ultimately, it was Benet who earned the right to see if the fourth time’s the charm.

ExpandAutoplay

Image 1 of 17

Volleyball: Benet Academy vs. Lockport, Class 4A State semifinal Benet Academy's Ellie Stiernagle, center, turns to celebrate with teammates as the Redwings secured a victory in two sets, 25-23, 25-16, over Lockport in the IHSA Class 4A State semifinals on Friday, Nov. 14, 2025. (Tiffany Blanchette)

After a doozy of a battle in the first set that went the Redwings’ way, they maintained a steady control in the second set to pick up the a 25-23, 25-16.

Benet advances to play Marist, a winner over Fremd Friday, in Saturday night’s championship game rematch.

Benet (39-2) was led by Maryland commit Brooklynne Brass (nine kills, 10 digs), Wisconsin commit Lynney Tarnow (seven kills) and Northwestern commit Ellie Stiernagle (20 assists).

Assistant coach Jeff Steinberg, speaking for an ill coach Brad Baker, expressed excitement that the team will get another crack at the state title.

“It’s exciting,” Steinberg said. “The girls have been working hard all season and taking it one game at a time. For them to have one more game to play together and play as many games as possible this season is something special that we’re excited for.”

Just don’t ask about the Redwings fighting for their first state title in four straight tries.

“We don’t even talk about it,” Steinberg said. “It’s a completely different team. We don’t focus on the past. This is a new team, new season, none of that matters. That’s unnecessary stuff that we’re not worried about.”

The game itself was as competitive as it could be to start. There were 11 ties and five lead changes with no team leading by more than three at any point in the first set. The set was even tied at 23-23 before Benet closed out the final two points.

The second set was competitive at first as well. There were five ties and after falling behind 12-9, Lockport managed to cut it to 16-15 later. The Redwings closed out on a 9-1 run, however, including six consecutive points to earn the win decisively.

“We knew we wanted to dominate the game and we didn’t do our best at that in the first set,” Brass said. “It’s a big stadium and we had to just get those jitters out. I felt like we did a really good job of adjusting and once we did there was no stopping us.”

Lockport (33-8) didn’t go away easy, though. Against a team with three Power Four commits leading the way, the Porters nearly took the first set and were competitive in both. To make it to state back-to-back years as a public school was something that coach Nick Mraz took great pride in.

“Some of these schools can pull from 800 different area codes,” Mraz said. “There’s a very short list of public schools that make it here back-to-back years recently. I’m proud of that effort. ...We came out, battled and I hope we made the Lockport community proud.”

Bridget Ferriter (eight kills), Natalie Bochantin (14 assists, one ace), Emma Consigny (nine digs), Sara McGraw (two blocks) and Hutsyn Timosciek (six kills) led the way for Lockport.

The graduation of Ferriter along with McGraw, Olivia Maier, and Kate Nelson will hurt, of course. But Timosciek was one of the best players in the area and will be back alongside Bochantin, Consigny, Malia Cole and others. Bochantin said the semifinal loss will only motivate the team moving forward.

“This is going to be a driving force for us,” she said. “Last year I felt like we had unfinished business. ...This journey back down to state really motivates us to win the whole thing next year.”

Lockport will play Fremd on Saturday for the 4A third place game at 7:25 p.m. Benet will try to break through against Marist for the second straight year at 8:55 p.m.

Again, though, they’re not talking about any year other than this one.

“We just want to win it for ourselves,” Stiernagle said. “We worked really hard this season. Some of the people on this team have worked harder than anyone I’ve ever seen. We just want to do it for ourselves tomorrow.”