Jayce Prohaska chalks up career-high 19 kills to power Mother McAuley past Libertyville for 18th state title
NORMAL, Ill. — While many of her Mother McAuley teammates have their college choices locked in, senior outside hitter Jayce Prohaska is still wrestling with that monumental decision.
She’s still mulling over a major and hopes to land a spot at the place where she can thrive in the classroom and develop on the volleyball court as well.
“I want to be somewhere I can be competitive,” Prohaska said. “I don’t want to be the star right away. I want to grow into that role.”
The 6-foot Prohaska was the star of the show Saturday night.
She opened up a few more eyes with a career-high 19 kills and also added 13 digs to lead the Mighty Macs to a 25-18, 23-25, 25-23 victory over Libertyville in the Class 4A state championship match at CEFCU Arena.
This is McAuley’s 18th state championship in girls volleyball. Southland teams have taken five straight state titles, with McAuley winning in 2022 and 2023 and Marist winning in 2024 and 2025.
But on this night, the spotlight for the Mighty Macs belonged to Prohaska.
“I’ll definitely send this film out — 100%,” she said.
UConn recruit Keira McQuillan came through with 12 kills and six digs for McAuley (38-4), while Chyla Jukes added nine kills and four blocks. Coastal Carolina commit Peyton Heatherly had 37 assists, 12 digs and four aces. Ava Calle added 24 digs and Alyson Cahill notched four blocks.
Emmi Zovistoski led Libertyville (40-2) with nine kills. Elle Knight followed with eight and Carsen Sesi had seven. Brynne Colton chalked up 16 assists. Charlie Fleegle contributed 19 digs.
The Wildcats didn’t carry the momentum of the second game into the third right away, facing a quick 11-3 deficit. However, they staged a huge rally to force a nail-biting 22-22 tie.
“We’ve been the comeback kids and came back from bigger deficits than that,” Libertyville coach Greg Loika said. “It’s a testament to the resilience and the grit of this team. These guys were going toe to toe with one of the best programs in Illinois history.
“It stings and we’ll have some what-if-isms, but these guys battled and showed everybody here that we are among the best programs in the state of Illinois.”
Prohaska, meanwhile, rang up 10 kills in the third game, including the 23rd and 25th points.
It was the third time in the last four playoff matches that she closed out the win with a kill. She did it against Marist in the sectional final and against Downers Grove North in the supersectional.
“That was a great ending to the game,” McAuley coach Jen DeJarld said of Prohaska’s winning kill late Saturday night. “She’s one of the best athletes I have ever coached in the sense that we’ve had her play in the middle, on the right side and now the outside.
“She always said, ‘I’m fine with it. Wherever you need me.'”
Heatherly was also happy to help Prohaska get that last kill.
“I wanted to get her the ball and let her have this moment,” Heatherly said of Prohaska. “I jumped up as high as I could and just tried to feed her the ball and it worked well.”
In Friday’s 16-25, 25-17, 25-18 semifinal win over Oak Park-River Forest, Prohaska finished with eight kills but had 10 errors and a minus-.061 hitting percentage.
Saturday was much different story with a team-best .341 hitting percentage.
“Definitely had a great block, so that was a little tough to get by,” Prohaska said of OPRF. “But I had a great pep talk with my coach and leaving it all on the court was the most important thing.
“This was my last high school game. I wanted to do my best and leave it all out there and have a super fun game and win a state championship.”
Jeff Vorva is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.