LDN - Sports

Hartsburg-Emden volleyball cruises through the first round at State

[March 10, 2018] The Hartem Stags finished the job quickly on Friday night at the opening round of the 7th Grade Class 1A State Tournament hosted by Decatur LSA. The Stags demolished Jacksonville Our Saviour 25-7 and 25-9.

Lily Barry made a fast and furious statement early in set one to show the crowd just how the evening would go. Barry annihilated the first ball set to her and, wow, this kid is unbelievable. Keep an eye on her. Barry had the first four kills for the Stags and Hartem was not even looking over their shoulder with a 9-3 lead.

Cloee O'Donoghue came up with a pretty sweet kill of her own to make the score 10-4 and from here Hartem just soared. A 16-4 lead escalated quickly to a 24-6 lead and Jacksonville honestly didn't have a chance. The final server for Jacksonville stepped over the line serving and with that Hartem had a 25-7 victory in set one.

Set two gave Jacksonville a chance to open with the serve but their bad luck continued. A serve straight into the net gave the Stags a 1-0 lead and this one would be on its way to ending quickly also.

With the score 3-0 and the ball set to Barry, a voice in the crowd said, "There it is!" He was right. A monster of a kill thrown down by Barry and Hartem was up 4-0.

The Stags reached about a 9-2 lead when something beautiful happened. Hartem Head Coach Jennifer Hayes started subbing players in from her bench. She brought in some little but mighty players off the bench who might not otherwise get a chance to play so young in a state tournament.

By the time the score was 13-3 the LSA announcer was pretty much on autopilot saying, "Point. Stags."

With the score 19-4 Dani Phillips was at the service line delivering and giving it her all. She was followed by a little lefty, Kylie Starcivic, whose grin on the court was as big as her stride serving.

Starcivic served the Stags to a 22-4 lead.

Meanwhile Coach Hayes could be overheard asking her bench, "Has everybody been in?" The bunch on the bench nodded their heads at the coach. It was just as much fun for the veteran coach as it was for these young players. Even when a couple balls dropped between the young ballers in the back row, Coach Hayes just smiled and kept encouraging. That Hartem bench is deep and powerful though.

Out on the court Izzy Cox came up with a kill to wow the crowd.

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The Hartem Stags

[click on picture for larger image]

Hartem was up 23-5 at this point and more than ready to put this game away.

Sadie Williams would get her chance to score for Hartem from the service line and she delivered.

The score rested at 24 for a bit for the Stags as Jacksonville got a few serves to fly past the Hartem defense. But that's okay. This was an exciting learning experience for the little Stags who were still joined on the court by a smiling Lily Barry. Barry, too, was enjoying every minute of the game.

Hartem finally captured a 25-9 victory and off to the semifinals go the Stags.

Hartem (21-0) will take on Peoria Limestone Walters (15-4) today at noon in the semifinals. The winner will play for the state championship at 4:15. The third place game is scheduled for 3:00 p.m.

Hartem stats versus Jacksonville Our Saviour

Kills:

Barry 9
Crabtree 2
Beekman 1
O'Donoghue 1
Cox 1

Assists:

Beekman 8
Montgomery 6

Points:

Beekman 11
Griffieth 7
O'Donoghue 6
Montgomery 5
Phillips 4
Barry 3
Crabtree 3
Starcivic 2
Merz 1
Williams 1

[Teena Lowery]

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