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 Tuesday night at the Bob Gasaway Gymnasium in Mount Pulaski was no
exception. The two teams battled it out with Hartsburg-Emden Stags
coming out on top in both matches.
The Stags won the 7th grade match 25-19 and 25-13.
The 8th grade match went to three sets with Hartsburg-Emden again
getting the best of the Honeybears 25-23, 22-25 and 25-15.
Mount Pulaski held a 17-15 edge in the first set before the Stags
came charging back to take the 20-18 lead.
With the Stags leading 22-21, Taylor Trimmer served the Honeybears
back to a tie, 22-22.
Then it was Claire Coogan with the kill to put the Honeybears on top
23-22.
But it would be Emily Craig bringing the Stags back with her
consistent serves. Not only did she tie the score, but she also
served the ball that put Hartsburg-Emden up 24-23.
Finally it was an ace by Craig that led the orange and black to
victory, 25-23.
The second set began just as close as the first one ended, with
scores rallying back and forth until a bullet serve by Coogan tied
the set at 17-17. A kill by Coogan would also put Mount Pulaski up
23-20 in this one but the Stags kept on fighting.
Sami Perschall’s kill for the Stags made the score 23-22 but Coogan
proved too much in this one. Again she hit a ball with such force
that the Stags could not return it and with the score 24-22 Isabella
Wade stepped to the line and served the Honeybears to victory,
25-22.
Was there really any doubt this was going to three sets? As both
teams took to the court for the tiebreaker, the crowd was certainly
fired up. First it was Hartsburg-Emden jumping out to an 8-4 lead.
Then Mount Pulaski’s Paige Stewart led her team back to an 8-8 tie.
With the score in favor of the Stags 14-10, however, one orange and
black fan was a little too fired up and he got tossed by the
referee, despite an earlier plea by Coach Jennifer Hayes for the
Hartem crowd to settle down. Maybe an earlier missed call that was
against the Stags had something to do with that. Nonetheless it did
not affect either team as the girls continued to fight their own
battle fair and square on the court.
Mount Pulaski just made the most errors on the court down the
stretch and Hartsburg-Emden jumped ahead 20-15 and eventually
cruised to a 25-15 win with Perschall finishing off the Honeybears
with her serving.
After the game, Coach Jennifer Hayes was very happy with her team
and her enthusiasm showed as she said, “Love coming into this
environment, you know, you’ve got everything going on for you. I’ve
got a lot of young 7th grade players out there. To see them come in,
and we have not went three many times, and so to figure out that we
won and then lost a close one, I didn’t know how we’d bounce back. I
thought, really, the third game was our most controlled game.
Figuring out the things that they weren’t doing right and trying to
figure out how to make it go right and they did.” Beaming about her
players, she added, "They righted the ship and they did the things
they needed to do to win the ballgame against a good team.”
[to top of second column] |
Coach Hayes can always be overheard encouraging her players and
Tuesday night she offered her “never give up pep talk” to the young
team. Following the win, she elaborated, "Never give up on a ball,
ever…..what’s gonna happen? You’re gonna lose the point anyway. Go
after the ball one hundred percent and you never know what’s gonna
happen to switch things around.” She emphasized she tries to teach
her young athletes to go after the ball because "the impossible is
never impossible as long as you go after it.” The philosophy seems
to be working as the 7th grade squad has accomplished a 13-0 record
so far this season and the 8th grade squad has a 10-4 record to show
for it’s hard work.
Meanwhile Mount Pulaski Coach Donna Dulle had this to offer
following her team’s defeat, "I thought we passed pretty well and we
served pretty well and that kept us in the game. Offensively we
could have done a little better.”
Mount Pulaski’s 7th grade team falls to 6-5 and the 8th grade team
falls to 6-4.
Leading stats for Hartsburg-Emden
7th grade
Lilly Berry 5 kills and 3 aces
Hattie Langley 3 kills
Grace Beekman 2 blocks
Jaedyn Rybolt 8 assists
8th grade
Sami Perschall 4 kills
Brianna Grabowski 5 kills and 3 aces
Emily Craig 3 aces
Grace Beekman 9 assists
Leading stats for Mount Pulaski
7th grade
Cassidy Clark 4 kills
Chloe Olson 3 kills and 5 assists
8th grade
Paige Stewart 8 kills
Claire Coogan 5 kills
Kaylee Wilham 3 kills and 7 digs
Taylor Trimmer 7 digs
Isabella Wade 17 assists
Alexis Wade 3 digs
Chloe Olson 1 assist
[Teena Lowery] |
