Coach Young on girls’ win: “A dream come true”
By RICHIE HALL
sports@readthereporter.com
MUNCIE – Hamilton Southeastern powered its way to a first-ever volleyball state championship on Saturday.
Playing in front of a packed – and loud – crowd at Ball State University’s Worthen Arena, the No. 1-ranked Royals won a tough four-set battle over No. 2-ranked Yorktown to claim the Class 4A state championship. The set scores were 25-17, 13-25, 25-23, 25-18.
Southeastern coach Jason Young, who has been coaching the Royals for 11 years, called it “a dream come true.”
“It takes a special group of kids, a special group of families, a special group of coaches to get this group over the hump,” said Young. “I’m just proud of our kids and how hard they battled.”
The Royals came out blasting in the first set. Southeastern led 11-5 early, with Avery Hobson putting down four kills. The Royals soon extended that lead to 21-11, with Hobson hitting two more kills. Other HSE players were getting into the act, with Tiffany Snook, Lindsey Mangelson, Breonna Goss and Lauren Harden all hitting a kill. The Tigers put up some resistance during the latter stages of the set, but the Royals were able to prevail.
Yorktown took its momentum from the end of the first set and ran away with the second set. The Tigers put up leads of 8-3, 11-4 and 20-6. Southeastern fought back at the end of the set with a five-point run, which included an ace by Kaylyn Christy and another Hobson kill. But Yorktown sophomore Charlotte Vinson got the last two points to tie the match at one set all.
That set the stage for a hard-fought third set. Yorktown again jumped out to a big lead, going up 14-6. But the Royals’ Breonna Goss hit a kill to start a huge Southeastern run.
The Royals won 14 of the next 18 points to take a 20-18 lead. The momentum shifted at the net, where Goss made a block, then Harden was strong with two consecutive blocks.
“We tried bringing them in with our serving, and try to bunch them up a little bit,” said Young. The coach said that gave Yorktown’s hitters a smaller space, “so that we could then go about doing the work and doing what we do, which is go big. It’s a combination of serving and then just us making plays.”
Still trailing 17-13, Southeastern made a run of four straight points on Ava Hunter’s serve. That included back-to-back aces, those after Harden hit a kill. A block by Mangelson got HSE ahead 20-18.
The Tigers surged back to lead 22-21, but Goss stepped up again with a block and a kill. Yorktown got one more point with a block, but Mangelson and Hobson smacked kills to give the Royals the set.
“Somehow we made a play and got that last point to make it 25-23,” said Young. “When you play a team like Yorktown, you’re very grateful when you escape a 25-23 set like that.”
In the fourth set, the Tigers won the first two points before Hobson put down another kill. The match stayed tight for the next several minutes, but Southeastern moved ahead for good when Lauren Harden hit a kill to give HSE an 11-10 lead. The Royals held the lead from that point forward.
Southeastern broke away from Yorktown with a 6-0 run that gave the Royals a 21-14 lead. Macy Hinshaw was the server during that run, hitting an ace along the way. After that, Southeastern was sprinting to the finish line, and another Hobson kill gave the Royals their state championship.
“It’s just an amazing experience to finish it strong with my teammates,” said Hobson. “It was just a great time. The game was so fun, even the worst parts.” Hobson said her team “just stuck together” and did what it wanted to accomplish.
“That’s what she’s done all year,” said Young. “She’s been our go-to all year. Her and Harden, again, such an unbelievable job offensively. Avery, she’s the only one that was with us in 2019 when we were here. For her to be part of this and the only senior, it just felt right.”
Hobson got an additional honor at the end of the match when she received the Mental Attitude Award.
“I was really surprised and just thankful for my coaches and teammates that just helped me along this way and finished the season strong,” said Hobson, who led the Royals with 17 kills.
Mangelson and Goss both added eight kills, while Harden hit seven. Tiffany Snook put down five kills, while Evett hit one. Hinshaw handed out 27 assists, while Hunter dished out 12. Sophie Ledbetter, Hinshaw and Hunter all served two aces.
On defense, the libero Ledbetter collected 25 digs with Hobson getting 19 digs and Hunter 10. Goss had three block assists and one solo block.
The Royals finished the season 34-1 and won Southeastern its 13th state championship.
Reporter photos by Kirk Green
Not to take anything away from Southeastern, but what in the world has the IHSAA done forcing a school (Yorktown) to play a team 4X’s their size in order to win a state championship?
I appreciate your comment. I would like to point out some facts:
Yorktown has been playing in 4A since 2017, so the Tigers have been beating schools bigger than them in the tournament for several years now. They won state in 4A in 2018 and 2020, beating schools like FW Carroll, Avon, Fishers, Brownsburg. All of those schools have at least two or three times Yorktown’s enrollment.
Also, Yorktown was 34-3 this season against a schedule filled with 4A teams. Several of those teams are 3x to 6x its enrollment, such as the above-mentioned schools, then add Carmel, Westfield, Center Grove, Crown Point and of course Southeastern to the list. The only non-4A schools I’m seeing on their schedule are schools like Bellmont (3A state runner-up) and Wapahani (2A state champion).
My point is that Yorktown may not have the enrollment of a 4A school, but it definitely plays volleyball at a 4A level. The Tigers are a great team, and it was a great match to watch and write about.