‘It felt a lot different.’ St. X defeats Henry Clay for inaugural boys volleyball title

The public address announcer briefly forgot to announce St. Xavier’s starters ahead of their state title bout with Henry Clay. That’s almost where adversity ended for the Tigers.

St. X’s emergence as the first boys volleyball champion in the sport’s debut in KHSAA-sanctioned competition was all but a formality. The Tigers’ sweep of the Blue Devils — 25-10, 25-12, 25-15 — Tuesday night at George Rogers Clark High School was the Louisville juggernaut’s 26th win against Kentucky competition in as many matches this season. They were unbeaten against instate foes in 2024, too, the sport’s last played under the jurisdiction of the Kentucky Volleyball Coaches Association.

Counting those seasons, this was the Tigers’ fourth straight state title. They toppled Paul Laurence Dunbar for the final KVCA crown.

“It felt a lot different, more professional,” said St. X junior Briley Codey, the tournament MVP who was named Mr. Volleyball earlier this week. “Last year it was really fun, but it didn’t have that professionalism.”

The Tigers lost only three sets to a Kentucky team all of this season; city rival Trinity pushed them to five sets in their first duel back on March 18 and got one again on April 28. The two met twice in the postseason, with St. X claiming hard-earned sweeps each time.

Henry Clay answered heartily after St. X from the jump dominated the first two frames. The Blue Devils took their first lead of the night, 3-2, on a kill by Murphy Lee Schmidt, and held several slim advantages before a 5-1 run finally allowed the Tigers to create distance.

“I’m proud of ’em, they fought hard,” Henry Clay head coach Luke Grupe said. “Not a single one of ’em gave up.”

St. Xavier hit .471 for the match while keeping the Blue Devils to just .058. Henry Clay during the season averaged nearly 10 kills per set; it had just 15 in the entire match on Tuesday.

The Tigers racked up 52 kills, assisting on 48.

“Defensively, they stopped us, but offense-wise they put us on our heels and that’s the biggest thing,” Grupe said.

Growing volleyball in Lexington

Boys club volleyball is more long-established in Louisville, buoyed by the success of their female counterparts. All but a handful of KHSAA girls state champions have hailed from the state’s largest city (a public school has also never won that sport, the sanctioning of which dates back to 1979). On the flip side, the travel scene for boys volleyball in Lexington is relatively nascent; St. X’s roster was stuffed with club players while only about half of Henry Clay’s spend time on the court when out of season.

“The more they start playing club, the more they start playing at a high level, we’re gonna get there,” Grupe said. “It’s gonna take some time but they’re hungry for it. They love the sport. Every time we’ve faced an opponent like this, they come back and say, ‘OK, I need to get better at this, how do I make this play.’”

Grupe understands better than most that building something special doesn’t happen overnight. His father Dale, an assistant on the boys bench, has led the girls program at Henry Clay for 26 seasons, coaching the Blue Devils to the finals in 2016. That team remains the only public school to have won a set in the KHSAA girls volleyball championship.

Underclassmen like Gray Millar, a 6-foot-7 outside hitter who didn’t start playing the sport until his freshman year, are among the local pioneers who will look to keep the boys’ side of the ledger from reaching such a gaudy streak.

Millar gave up basketball to throw himself into volleyball, and he’s attracting significant college interest despite being such a late-comer. The junior was one of three Lexington players named to the KVCA’s All-State First Team, along with Tates Creek senior Zane Hinke and Dunbar senior William Naehr.

“Because it was the first year it was sanctioned, everybody wanted to be the first-ever team to win it all,” Millar said. “It felt bigger than usual, I would say. We almost got it, but St. X is pretty good.”

History will celebrate St. X as the deserving, wire-to-wire champ of the inaugural KHSAA boys volleyball campaign. Runners-up aren’t as well-remembered, but Henry Clay appreciates having had the opportunity to have a shot.

“This is where we wanted to be,” Grupe said. “We knew that this was our limit, this is where we had to get to and then make a surprise, maybe, at the end. They did an awesome job.”

This story was originally published May 21, 2025 at 7:41 AM.