CONCORD, Illinois. It was a struggle of attrition for the Augusta Southeastern Suns volleyball group as they battled by way of a number of accidents all through the season and had been nonetheless in a position to have a dominant common season.
That's the place the season ended within the semifinals of the Class 2A Triopia Harmony Sectional towards Decatur Unity Christian on Monday evening. The Suns misplaced each units 25-21 and 25-18.
Southeast coach Tim Kerr talked concerning the loss to Unity Christian.
“We simply dug ourselves a giant gap at the beginning of the primary set, lots of people most likely thought we had been out of it, however we simply emphasised the truth that you simply need to take one level at a time and we went after every level.” from being down 20-10 to being proper in it,” Kerr stated. “Then the second was type of the identical and actuality set in in the direction of the top, a few issues right here and there, we had been uncharacteristically poor from the service line which was a giant swing on their finish when it comes to their skill to keep up tempo and dominance.”
Southeastern misplaced early in each units, falling by ten within the first set 20-10 earlier than preventing again to narrowly lose the opening set.
The second set was extra of the identical and it wasn't till the top of the ultimate set that fatigue appeared to set in. Two of their leaders in senior Abigail Shaffer and junior Amanda Stephens are out with accidents, with Stephens lacking the final ten video games main as much as lacking Monday's sectional and Shaffer coping with a again harm.
The Suns remained regular all yr coming into the postseason, however the accidents appeared to be an excessive amount of to beat. Kerr talked extra about his group and confirmed great toughness with most of the ladies coping with accidents.
“Yr-wise, it's been a bizarre yr, a loopy yr with accidents,” Kerr stated. “Even tonight Abigail had a again harm, she didn't apply on Friday due to the harm, she performs so arduous with Amanda. sitting out the final 10 video games attributable to harm performs an enormous issue as a result of there isn’t any future division expertise. The children performed arduous, the hassle can't be faulted. Tonight we they bumped into a fairly good group, a aggressive recreation, it was good to see us claw and defend.”
Southeastern will lose seniors Shaffer, Zoey Griswold and Rylie VanFleet, however they are going to retain the remainder of their core as they appear to construct on a 29-win season. The Suns completed 29-8-1, 11-3 in Augusta, 11-2 on the street and 7-3-1 at impartial websites.
They had been third within the West Central North Convention.
“It was the next-man-up mentality,” Kerr stated. “We needed to restructure a number of our lineup, we needed to do totally different positions. Kenzie Griswold has performed very well within the final two video games, hopefully that may result in greater issues sooner or later, everybody loves the sport and is pleased with the jersey they put on.”
Kerr went on to speak concerning the confidence he has within the return of a number of of his youthful gamers who’ve made massive enhancements this season.
“Hopefully Amanda can get better from the knees and get her again on the ground,” Kerr stated. “Each certainly one of our youngsters has gotten higher. I take a look at Kenzie, Tegan (Rigg), Kara (Stephens), all these youngsters had been so much higher on the finish of the yr than they had been at the start with expertise and their skill to step up, having these youngsters again will give us a strong core for subsequent yr .”
