In order to win the Sectional 8 championship, the Hamilton Southeastern volleyball team had to beat two defending sectional champions on Saturday.
That’s how tough things were at The Mill in Noblesville. But the Royals were up to the challenge, sweeping past Zionsville in the semi-finals and city rival Fishers 25-20, 25-19, 25-19 in the championship match to claim their first sectional title since 2015. Southeastern will return to Noblesville next Saturday for the regional, where it will take on Homestead.
“I thought we played extremely well in an awesome environment,” said Royals coach Jason Young. Southeastern had already beaten both teams in Hoosier Crossroads Conference matches earlier this season, as the Royals were unbeaten HCC champions.
“We had to go against the defending sectional champs in Zionsville,” said Young, who pointed out the Eagles were moved back into Sectional 8. Zionsville had won four straight titles in Sectional 7.
“We had to beat them, and then we had to go through the defending Sectional 8 champions, Fishers, and you got to beat them,” said Young.
Fishers skipped ahead 5-1 in the first set of the championship match, but the Royals came back to lead 6-5. Emily Weber helped out with a block, then a kill. The match was tight until Southeastern scored four straight points to lead 19-16, with Weber making a tip and Jordan Engelmann hitting an ace. The Royals won five of the last six points to clinch the set, which ended with an Abby Weber kill.
The next two sets followed roughly the same pattern. In the second set, the Royals scored three straight points to lead 15-12, then another three points got them up 24-18 and gave them a handful of set points. The Tigers saved one, but Abby Weber again hit a set-winning kill.
Southeastern scored the first three points of the third set, in which they never trailed. The Tigers won three consecutive points to get within 15-14, only to have Abby Weber hit another kill. The Royals won the last three points to clinch the match, with Grace Hunter making the winning kill.
Abby Weber finished with 16 kills, while Delaney Garner hit 10 kills and made two blocks. Hunter put down eight kills and Maddie Cole played strong with five kills. On defense, Carly Mills made 13 digs and Kyla Berg collected 10 digs. Olivia Phillips handed out 24 assists.
“I think our chemistry was just amazing,” said Garner. “Throughout this season, we’ve just had this good connection which helped us a lot in this game.”
“We had to focus on one team at a time, and we knew that if we focused on that one team, that we’d put our all into that game and then transition to another,” said Weber. “We played them both before and we knew what we had to focus on and just kept going point by point.”
Jada Allen had a sensational sectional for Fishers, and played well again in the final with 13 kills. Emily Waldrop hit 11 kills and made seven digs. Mikayla Christiansen spiked seven kills and had one block, and Emily Brewer handed out 36 assists. Ava Vickers made two blocks, and Bryn Roberts contributed 18 digs and four aces.
“They’re an excellent, excellent team,” said Tigers coach Steven Peek. “And very apparent they had a different game plan than the first time we played them. We had a different game plan than the first time we played them. So it was a great chess match between the coaching staffs, but the players on both sides were definitely trying to do some different things, and that made it good and competitive for the fans. And I think it definitely lived up to being a championship match.”
In the semi-finals, Southeastern swept Zionsville 25-12, 25-23, 25-15. After powering through the first set, the Royals had to overcome a tough second set from the Eagles, who led 22-20 at one point. Cole hit a kill to start a run of three straight points, Lillian Leiner served an ace, and Olivia Phillips hit two kills as Southeastern eventually clinched the set. The Royals then rolled through the third set.
Garner hit 16 kills, with Abby Weber adding 12 kills, 10 digs and two aces. Hunter picked up 12 digs, and Mills had 20 digs and two aces. Berg contributed 10 digs and two aces, while Leiner collected 11 digs.
Phillips dished out 16 assists, and Emily Weber had 12 assists. Engelmann served two aces and Cole had 1.5 blocks.
Fishers overcame Carmel in a five-set semi-final match 25-22, 24-26, 26-24, 19-23, 16-14. The Tigers had a series of match points in the fifth set before the Greyhounds came back to 14-14. Fishers got the next two points to book its place in the final.
Waldrop and Allen both hit 16 kills, with Christiansen putting down 12 kills. Ava Vickers had four kills and Grace Dunnuck hit two. Brewer dished out 47 assists.
The Tigers had 88 team digs: Roberts had 19, Samantha Perdue had 19, Olivia Lux had 13 and Waldrop had 11. Vickers made six blocks, Waldrop had four, Dunnuck three and Allen two. Allen and Vickers combined for the winning block.
Gabby Smith led Carmel with 19 kills, while Kelise Twyner hit 12 kills. Maria Zweig had 19 digs, with Kamryn Kichefski collecting 14 and Anne Lesure getting 12. Lesure also had 27 assists and four aces.
Macarty McQueen picked up 10 digs, Caroline Yuska had two blocks and Ella Bostic handed out 29 assists.
“We’ve obviously had some highs and lows throughout the season,” said Carmel coach Kristine Deem. “Coming into today was really about being confident and believing in ourselves, whether it was individual or as a team. They did a really good job of going in with no fear.”
OTHER SECTIONALS
At the Class 3A Brebeuf Jesuit sectional, the host Braves beat two Hamilton County schools to win its championship. Brebeuf beat Guerin Catholic 25-14, 25-22, 25-22 in the semi-finals and Hamilton Heights 25-8, 25-13, 25-17 in the championship match.
Sheridan hosted a Class 2A sectional. The Blackhawks fell to Western Boone in the semi-finals 25-2, 25-11, 25-15, while University lost to eventual champion Heritage Christian in the semi-finals, 25-9, 25-9, 25-14.
Allie Delph had nine digs and six kill for the Blackhawks, while Lillie Dickerson hit seven kills. Emma Went had nine digs. Becca Merritt had one solo block and one ace, Cheyenne Brooks had one solo block, and Taylor Bates dished out 12 assists.
Hamilton Southeastern’s senior volleyball players celebrate after the Royals won the Sectional 8 championship at Noblesville on Saturday. Southeastern swept Zionsville in the semi-finals and Fishers in the final. (Kirk Green)