By RICHIE HALL
NOBLESVILLE – The Hamilton Southeastern volleyball team’s sensational season came to an end on Saturday, as the Royals fell in the championship match of the Class 4A Noblesville regional.
Southeastern was edged out by McCutcheon in a hard-fought, five-set match, by the score of 17-25, 25-22, 14-25, 25-23, 15-12. It was the first regional championship for the Mavericks since 1989.
Royals coach Jason Young said his team “played their hearts out today,” and credited his five seniors with leading by example during the season.
“Credit McCutcheon and the work that they did,” said Young. “They beat us. That’s a solid team over there. It hurts and we’ll learn from it. Hopefully we’ll rebound stronger, but those five seniors are going to be monumental losses for our program.”
The championship match featured many instances of back-and-forth, although both sets that Southeastern won saw the Royals go on extended runs. That was the case in the first set, when HSE used an 11-3 run to take a 20-11 lead. Freshman Lauren Harden helped out with an ace. The Royals got up set point at 24-14; the Mavs saved three of those set points before senior Delaney Garner ended the set with a kill.
Southeastern led 7-5 in the second set before McCutcheon jumped ahead 18-11. Two aces helped the Mavericks during their run. The Royals blasted back by scoring five straight points, including a kill from Lovie Wallace, and then pulled within 21-20 after Avery Hobson and Garner teamed up for a block. But McCutcheon won the next two points and held on to even the match at one set all.
Taylor Lauri opened the third set for HSE in style, serving three straight aces to put her team up 3-0. That set the tone, and the Royals were able to cruise through the set unbothered, taking leads of 14-8, 18-11 and 22-12. Wallace, Hobson, Garner and Harden all had kills at various points in the set. Hobson smacked back-to-back kills in the last part of the set.
In the fourth set, Lauri served an ace to get Southeastern up 15-10. But McCutcheon’s Chloe Chicoine hit a kill, and that suddenly changed the momentum, as the Mavs won seven of the next eight points to go up 17-16. The set was a battle after that, and the Mavericks won the last two points from 23-all to knot the match up again.
“Chloe was phenomenal today, their outside hitter,” said Young. “She was all over the place.” Chicoine would have several big hits in the fifth set as well.
“We were up in the fourth set, 15-10, that was the turning point where I thought we’re close to shutting this down,” said Young. “And she turned it up a notch and brought them back. Frustrating for us, but again, she had a remarkable match. That team played their hearts out, so credit goes to them.”
McCutcheon controlled the fifth set, leading 4-1 and 8-4. A kill gave the Mavericks four championship points at 14-10; the Royals saved two of them before McCutcheon won on its third match point.
Four different Southeastern players had double-digit kills. Garner led the way with 18, followed by Wallace with 14, Harden with 13 and Hobson with 12. Lauri served six aces, while Wallace made 2.5 blocks.
Olivia Phillips handed out 24 assists, while Emily Weber had 23. On defense, Carly Mills collected 21 digs, followed by 13 for Harden, 12 for Jordan Engelmann and 11 for Meghan Slaninka.
In their semi-final match, the Royals cruised past Homestead 25-10, 25-9, 25-9. Southeastern was in control from the beginning, leading 18-5 in the first set, which finished when Wallace made a successful block on set point.
HSE went on a 10-point run in the middle of the second set, turning an 8-6 lead into an 18-6 advantage. Southeastern ran out the set from there, then blasted out to a 6-0 lead in the third set. Garner had two kills and a block, Harden hit one kill and Lauri served an ace. The Royals then won the last six points of the match, with Harden’s kill setting up match point and Garner’s kill closing it out.
Young said he “was really pleased” with how his team played against the Spartans.
“We were able to get some people in,” said Young. “People that got in did a great job. Overall, really happy with the way that we started the morning.”
Harden led the offense with 11 kills, while Mills served five aces and had 10 digs. Phillips handed out 13 assists and Weber dished out 11.
Southeastern finished its season with a 25-1 record, and also won sectional and Hoosier Crossroads Conference championships.