Marist junior Briggs Corona wasn’t sure what to expect from this volleyball season.
The RedHawks were the two-time defending state champs, but the team had graduated a star-studded senior class.
Were hopes and goals as high as ever? Absolutely.
But as Corona admitted, there were so many unanswered questions.
In the end, Marist defeated Libertyville 25-21, 25-18 on June 6 at Bolingbrook to finish third in state.
“Yes, we were confident, and no, because we had questions,” Corona said. “We had trust in coach (Jordan Vidovic) and what we could do. We had so many empty roles. It was a little uncertainty.”
Marist lost in three sets to Oak Park-River Forest earlier in the day in the state semifinals.
In the third-place match, Corona led the way with 10 kills and three blocks.
Freshman Max DeHoyos (five kills), juniors Nick Mayoski (four kills, three digs), Drew Fiedler (15 assists, seven digs) and Michael Forbes (three blocks) and sophomore Jason Mayoski (seven digs, four assists) led the RedHawks (34-8).
Vidovic was proud of the team’s effort all season.
“We didn’t know honestly (what to expect). We had no idea,” Vidovic said. “All things considered, it’s one of the most impressive seasons we’ve ever had. It’s all because of the guys. To finish with a win like this, it’s a culmination of a lot of cool stuff that transpired during the season.”
Corona, a Ball State commit, said winning the championship at Brother Rice’s Smack Attack tournament in late April was a big confidence boost for the team.
From there, the RedHawks were rolling.
DeHoyos, a 6-3 freshman, said the team heard all the potential doubters throughout the season.
Already looking to prove themselves, both as a team and individually, the RedHawks had a little extra juice to prove people wrong.
“Winning third, this is not a horrible thing,” DeHoyos said with a laugh. “A lot of teams doubted us, that we could get this far. We lost 11 seniors. This shows people we’re still good. We’ll always be good.”
Under Vidovic, Marist won state titles in 2019, 2024 and 2025. His boys teams are 330-46-1 over 10 seasons.
On the girls side, he’s gone 309-49 over nine seasons with four state championships and one third-place finish.
Nick Mayoski played at libero much of the year, but could also swing away at outside hitter for a deep lineup as needed.
He said an early-season matchup with O’Fallon went a long way to showing him and his teammates what they were capable of.
“Ever since that first game, we knew we could definitely compete,” Nick Mayoski said. “It showed us we could do this. We deserve this (third). It shows we can compete at the highest level. We do deserve to be up there.”