Western Boone Jr. - Sr. High School

DOVER - Raegan Durbin has never shied away from her goals. Since her freshman year at Western Boone, Durbin some of the Stars' records for kills posted on her bedroom wall, reminding herself of a target she hoped to hit. She broke the single-season kill record with 623 a year ago, and after a 14-kill performance in Thursday's win over Plainfield, she now is the all-time leader for kills at WeBo. "I've had my eyes set on those for a while," Durbin said. "I knew nothing is guaranteed so you have to take it game by game and do my best every game. If you do that good outcomes will come along." Durbin now has 1,741 kills, surpassing Emily Harrison's record of 1,733. With a lot of her family and her future college coach in the stands watching, Durbin set the record with kill late in the second set on Thursday. "It is really special, especially being the last regular season home game," Durbin said. "It's kind of a full circle moment, especially since Janie (Ransom) is nearing the assist record too. We were hoping to get that on the same night. Records can't be broken without amazing teammates around me, so the support they have shown me throughout all of this and finally being able to accomplish that was pretty big tonight and I'm super grateful." Setting the record is even more impressive given that Durbin missed a month (11 matches) with an injury her freshman year. Head coach Laura Bragg said Durbin has put in the work over the years to go down as arguably the best in WeBo history. "It's just amazing," Bragg said. "She has done so much for our program and she is such a great role model for the younger girls coming up. Her work ethic is incredible. And of course she can hit a ball that's perfectly in system, but what she can do with balls that are off the net or too tight on the net - that's what separates her." The Stars won the match 3-0 (25-18, 26-24, 25-17). After a tough loss to Tri-West on Tuesday, it was a win the Stars needed to close the regular season. "Tuesday was hard and Tri-West was a really good team," Bragg said. "We are fighting some illness right now too, so to come back and get a win was great." The Stars set the tone in the first set with their serving. WeBo had six aces in the set, with Durbin having three and Izzy Adams having two. For the match, Western Boone finished with 15 aces. Adams had seven aces herself, with Durbin having five. "We knew their serve receive was one of the weaker points in their game, so we just had to make sure that we were serving them tough and keeping them out of system," Bragg said. "They have a couple of good middles, so keeping them out of system was big." WeBo didn't serve as well in the second set, and Plainfield had their best effort. They led 20-14, but the Stars continued to chip away. Down 23-19, WeBo scored the next three points, then after a side out made it 24-22, WeBo closed the set out with a kill from Emmerson Gott and three-straight kills from Durbin - including her record breaker. WeBo pulled away in the middle of the third set to finish it off. Sadie Poeck had nine kills and 14 digs for the Stars. Gott and Alyssa Witte had four kills and Isabel Grady had five. Ransom had 32 assists, leaving her four shy of the all-time assist mark at WeBo. Izzy Adams had 10 digs, Durbin had nine and Olivia Smith had nine. Western Boone is now off until the sectional semifinal next Saturday where they will face the winner of Delphi and North Montgomery. "We need the week, especially to get healthy," Bragg said. "This is the part of the season where you get tired mentally and physically. It will be good to have the week off to get ready." Durbin said the Stars are in a good place heading into the post-season. "We are playing a lot better than we were at the beginning of the season and our confidence, in each other and ourselves, has grown a lot," Durbin said. "Even this last week, playing teams like Tri-West, even if we don't come out with a win - we improve each game. We're are hungry for more." Will Willems is the Sports Editor of the Lebanon Reporter. Follow him on Twitter @Will_Willems.