High School Girls Volleyball
Stags finish in 2nd place in State
Team finishes season with a 33-8 record

 

[November 12, 2023] 

The Hartsburg-Emden Stags brought home the 2nd place trophy on Saturday after falling to the Galena Pirates 25-23 and 25-16 in the Class 1A Volleyball State Championships at CEFCU Arena in Normal.

The Stags will lose senior starters and co-captains Addie Beekman and Cloee O’Donoghue to graduation but four key underclassmen have plenty of Varsity experience that will undoubtedly continue to guide the program towards success in the future. A return trip to CEFCU Arena in the future is certainly something to look forward to for Hartem volleyball.

On Saturday morning in the 10:30 a.m. match with Galena Addie Beekman, younger sister of Lincoln Community High School volleyball coach Kaylee (Beekman) Lowery, really tried her best to go out on top and carry the team on her back on the way out.

Hartem Coach Jennifer Hayes and LCHS Lady Railer Coach Kaylee Lowery.  Lowery was not only a stag volleyball player under Hayes, but she is also the sister to Lady Stag Addie Beekman and former Lady Stag Grace Beekman.

Beekman finished with 15 kills and she also had 10 digs. She showed no signs of feeling the pressure of a championship match, if anything she thrived on the competition.

In the end, Galena just never stopped driving the ball into the ground. They pounded one kill after another and the Stags defense did the best they could to stop them. The Stags can be proud of their hitters, who tallied a total of 25 team kills versus 28 kills by the Pirates offense.

Set one

With Addie Beekman starting at the service line, the Stags took a 1-0 lead on a Pirates hitting error immediately.

Sophomore Alayna Briggs, who is going to be talked about a lot more in the future, recorded the Stags first kill and the score was 3-1. Briggs quickly tallied another kill and the Stags lead was 4-2. With Briggs unintimidated by the big stage, she came up with another huge kill and the Stags were enjoying a 6-3 lead.

The lead grew to 9-5 with Beekman adding another kill and the Pirates committing a hitting error to help the Hartem cause. Beekman got on a roll and with two more kills, the Stags were on top 11-7.

Three consecutive kills by the Pirates closed the gap to 11-10. Two of those kills came from Gracie Furlong.

Coach Jennifer Hayes called a timeout and her Stags understood the mission when they emerged back on the court at CEFCU Arena. Briggs signed up for double-duty and answered the call with two kills consecutively. After Celia Cross, the super sophomore setter, earned a kill, the Stags were up 14-11.

Following a hitting error by the Pirates, the lead for Hartem grew to 15-11 and there was a timeout immediately by Galena. Galena used the timeout to turn things around and go back to battle, besting the Stags 6-0 over the course of the next couple minutes.

Three errors by the Stags, two kills and a service ace by the Pirates put Galena on top 17-15. After the Stags got a point on a hitting error, the Pirates were back on the attack with a kill and an 18-16 lead was the result. That lead escalated to 21-16 and the Stags really had to battle back.

With Beekman determined, she brought the team back to within three points, each of which were earned on kills to make the score 19-22. After a tip by Emma Eeten, the Stags were down 20-22.

Addie Hefel’s two kills were too much for the Stags and they found themselves down 21-24. A net serve and a hitting error kept the Stags hopes alive, trailing just 23-24. Galena called a timeout and following the timeout Gracie Furlong ended set one with a kill that sealed the 25-23 Pirates win.

Set two

The Pirates gave the Stags the first point in set two on a serve into the net and then it was Briggs on the kill to excite the Hartem fans with a 2-0 lead.

The Pirates went up 5-2 after that.

With Beekman really playing her heart out, she put the ball down for four kills and each time she hollered, “Come on, let’s go!” at her teammates, but her team still trailed 8-12.

Hefel put down one amazing kill after that and it was really going to be a monumental task for the Stags to defend that girl. Nonetheless, Briggs and Beekman kept swinging and Cross kept putting the ball where it needed to be.

Once again the Stags pulled close, yet trailed 12-15. Hefel was a handful and after her kill in which you could almost hear the air going out of the ball, the Stags were down 13-18.

Coach Hayes called a timeout. Beekman had two more kills in the set, making the score 15-21. But two errors put Hartem down further, 15-23 the score.

Emma Eeten, a freshman, earned her only kill of the match next and the crowd really roared as the student section yelled, “She’s a freshman!”

Kendra Bauer quieted the orange and black crowd down with a kill to send the set to game point, where Leah Heller served to Beekman and her pass sent Cross flying towards the net for a violation to end the set by a final score of 25-16.

The Hartem players were disappointed with the loss and because this group is such good friends, there were tears.

No one cried harder than Addie Beekman, who really wanted to break the Beekman sister’s streak of getting second place at State. Instead she joins her sisters, Kaylee Lowery and Grace Beekman, with a second place trophy and that’s not all bad.

Coach Jennifer Hayes was upbeat in the press conference, opening with, “Oh, there’s no disappointment here. I mean just to be able to play in the last game on the last day, there’s nothing disappointing about that.”

Hayes went on to say, “I am so happy for this team. I am so happy for our community.”

To hear more from Coach Hayes, the full press conference video will be available online at Lincoln Daily News.

Taking a look at the Stags stats, Addie Beekman truly gave it her all with 15 kills and 10 digs in the championship match.

Alayna Briggs had 8 kills and 3 digs.

Celia Cross had 22 assists, 5 digs and 1 kill.

Cloee O’Donoghue had 13 digs and 1 assist.

Kylie Starcevic had 5 digs.

Ellie Klokkenga had 4 digs.

Sadie Williams had 1 dig.

Emma Eeten had 1 kill.

Congratulations, Stags! We are all so proud of you!

[Teena Lowery]