Girls Volleyball: Hartsburg-Emden volleyball clinches Class 8-1A Sectional Championship over Metamora St. Mary's - on to state!

[March 14, 2017]   Stags steamroll over Metamora St. Mary’s 25-6 and 25-9 to take the sectional championship

In the pregame huddle, Hartem Head Coach Jennifer Hayes told her team, “You’re all jacked up so just take a deep breath.”

The Stags were indeed pumped up and ready to get down to business but Hayes had a theory behind getting her team to relax just prior to the first serve. “I remember a long time ago my husband had a basketball coach and he was always like, okay, if you’re gonna play football, you’re gonna be up here,” she spoke quickly, her voice raising with excitement. “And if it’s golf, you’re gonna be down here,” she said lowering her voice and slowing things down a gear. “And basketball, you’re somewhere in the middle,” she explained, while reaching a happy medium.

“I used that because it’s such a great analogy. Like you only need so much intensity to play or you’re gonna be over the top. And here when you go over the top, you push and you make mistakes and you get in the net and you serve twenty feet out of bounds and then you kill it twenty feet out of bounds. You just need to get yourself under control and play the game that you were meant to play and then start shining.”

She knows what she’s talking about. Her team settled in quickly Monday night playing in front of the home crowd and even though they found themselves facing an early 4-2 deficit, they never got too “jacked up” about it.

With Hattie Langley at the service line and Lily Barry going solo providing a monster block, the Stags tied the game at 4-4.

After Hartem was caught in the net, St. Mary’s could boast another lead, this time 5-4. But what happened next was downright ugly for the Falcons.

In short, Grace Beekman stepped to the service line and pounded out the next twenty points for the Stags. Beekman far from acted alone, however, she did have four aces in the bunch, but she got help from her teammates.

You can give Brianna Grabowski credit for about six kills in this stretch and of course, Beekman and Barry were swinging well here, too.

When the big heavy hitters weren’t available, the Stags relied on that sneaky soft-finger-tipped setter, Allison Woolard, who was just playing games at the net with the Falcons’ defenders as she tossed in a tip or two to catch them by surprise.

Just to change things up a bit, Barry would not leave those Falcons alone at the net and she had another block that really seemed to frazzle their feathers. At this point right after the Barry block, one of the Falcons’ players said, “Come on. Let’s go make it hard on them.” Their spirit was admirable but the score was already 12-5 here and the Stags were unfazed by their competition.

So anyway, Beekman and company drove the score up to 24-6, but the Falcons got another chance. Sadly, they blew it all on their own. The serve by St. Mary’s went out of bounds by a long shot and set one goes to the Stags 25-6.

Set two was tied at 2-2 for a split second before Barry could be heard yelling from the back row, “I got it!” You guessed it, she killed the ball. The Falcons were already practically defeated knowing even that type of a kill can come from the back row.

With the score 8-4 in favor of the Stags, Beekman herself was hollering from the back row, “Mine, mine, mine!” She annihilated the volleyball.

Then Coach Hayes substituted in Starlei Miesner and she came up big with a kill to make the score 11-5.

This time with Barry serving, the Stags built up a 16-5 lead. Only a matter of time until the end and the Falcons knew it.

After another kill by Beekman, the score was 19-6 and the excitement of another state tournament berth was beginning to simmer among the players on the bench.

Kelsey Todd of St. Mary’s did manage a successful kill on the Stags, but the 21-8 lead by the Stags was so far out of reach the Falcons were just going through the motions.

After an ace serve by Miesner the score was 23-9 and the Stags bench was now boiling over with excitement.

A kill by Beekman brought the crowd to its feet, 24-9 the score and how will this end? How about another ace serve from Miesner? That will work perfectly. The final, set two, ending 25 - 9.

Miesner didn’t look nervous at all serving the ball over the net. But after the game, she was still a little beside herself with excitement and she admitted to some nerves as the crowd was getting fired up during those final points. "I hate when they pound on the bleachers,” she said. "That makes me really nervous. I was really nervous.” Then she added she almost cried at the end when she saw the libero from St. Mary’s turning red-faced with tears. No time for sympathy tears even, the Stags need to celebrate. Another picture with another plaque and lots of hugs were the only things on the Stags’ agenda.

And of course another interview with Coach Hayes, who certainly has the recipe for success down to a T. But she’s good at laughing that comment off and crediting her players with the success.

“Well, they just really came out and played. This is a great group of girls,” she said. "This group of girls has been together for a long time now. You could see it was something special when they were in fifth grade and when my daughter was in seventh grade and we came up a little short. But they really stepped up as fifth graders and they were starters and were just a little bit shy. Each step they became competitors of their own and leaders of their own and it showed last year when they went through as seventh graders. It’s a much different beast at eighth grade than seventh grade. You’ll see as the girls get more mature, the teams get better, they have more time under their belt. So being undefeated as a seventh grade team they really have a target on their back as eighth grade.

"So they had goals that they had set coming in to this and so far so good. They’re playing hard, they’re playing well, they’re playing as a team and I think they’re very good as a team. I think that our setters get everybody the ball. I think that we are very unselfish as a team and that everybody’s very encouraging to each other, which is what makes this group so good."

When asked about Miesner coming in to serve, Coach Hayes told how the whole team was happy for the eighth grader who just sees playing time on the court as a substitute. "Yes, and they were so excited. She doesn’t get to serve very often. It was so sweet because Hattie (Langley) really is like the mother of the group. She just kind of takes care of everybody." As the libero, Hattie said to Coach Hayes, “Are you going to let Starlei serve for me?” And I said, “Yeah, let’s let her do it.” Hattie was okay with it, telling her coach, “Absolutely.” The move allowed Hayes to "give everybody a little bit of the spotlight.”

Meanwhile, eighth-grader Hattie Langley will be aiming for her fourth state title. Does she ever take it for granted?

The newest Sectional Championship plaque

“No,” she said. “The best feeling is going on the court and just knowing that you’re starting and you’re just ready to play. I don’t know, it’s just the best feeling. The best feeling is just getting your medal, too. I don’t know. I can’t explain it,” she says with a big smile. "It’s the best feeling ever. It’s just amazing. Like when you win big games and you’re just like, oh my gosh, that was the best day of my life. I would never take those days back, ever. Those were amazing.”

Is this girl even going to be able to sleep tonight?

“No,” she says kinda quietly. "I am just ready for Saturday. I am just ready to play. The “Pretzel Dome” is definitely my favorite place to play. I love that place. It’s my favorite gym. I love it so much,” she says with a laugh.

Kudos to Langley for being so unselfish and suggesting that Miesner stay in the game for her to serve at the end.

There was no bigger fan than the littlest Langley sister. "She did really good. I was so proud of her back there acing ‘em. I was so excited. It was great,”

Langley said with a huge smile. "I was so excited. She can serve the ball over. She can DO this and she DID. I was so excited. I was so proud,” sounding just like a mom. "Game points always freak me out but I’m so glad she did it and she put it away and we won the sectionals,” said the still-smiling Langley.

Now on to state!

Hartem (25-0) will face Bartonville Monroe (17-7) in the Class 8-1A State Tournament on Saturday at 3:30 p.m. The state tournament is hosted by New Berlin Junior High School and will take place at Hattie Langley’s favorite place to play, the famous “Pretzel Dome.” Go Stags!

News worth mentioning: Hartem has won eight of the last 10 8-1A state championships.

Working on the game plan

Stags in control


Grabowski has her eye on another state berth

Getting close..

point, point, WIN! 

STATE here we come!

Stags stats

Grace Beekman 10 kills 6 aces
Brianna Grabowski 8 kills 4 digs
Lily Barry 6 kills 3 blocks
Allison Woolard 14 assists
Jaedyn Rybolt 5 assists
Starlei Miesner 2 aces 1 kill

[Teena Lowery]