Annawan dug deep Friday night at the Bushnell-Prairie City Super-Sectional, but the Bravettes came up short in their bid for the school’s first trip to the IHSA Class 1A State Volleyball Finals.
Annawan lost a three-set heartbreaker to Hartsburg-Emden, 17-25, 25-15, 19-25. The No. 1 seed Stags (32-7) advance to the Final Four where they’ll face another No. 1 seed, Cissna Park Coop (37-3) Friday at 9 a.m. at Redbird Arena in Normal.
The other two teams advancing are (3) Effingham-St. Anthony (28-7) and (2) Galena (34-4). That match will be played at 10:30 a.m.
B-PC Super-Sectional
The Annawan and Hartsburg-Emden front line players came out swinging — and swinging hard.
In the first game of the match, Annawan’s 6’0″ senior outside hitter, Kaylee Celus, and Hartsburg-Emden’s 5’11” sophomore outside hitter, Alayna Briggs, traded kills back and forth. Celus landed three and Briggs scored on two for the 4-4 tie.
A bit later in the match, senior outside hitter Addie Beekman got in on the action and had two kills, giving the Stags an 11-6 advantage. After another kill by Celus and a few hitting errors by Hartsburg-Emden, the Bravettes were back within one at 12-13.
Briggs caught fire again later in the game and drilled three more kills, prompting Annawan to use their second timeout, down 19-15.
Junior outside hitter Tyra Jones had a kill for the Bravettes down the stretch, but Annawan couldn’t build up any momentum and were slipping further behind at 22-16.
The Stags’ 6’0″ freshman middle blocker, Emma Eeten, took over at the end and hit one down the middle for the 25-17 score.
In similar fashion to the first game, the heavy hitters came out strong at the beginning of the second game. Celus came up big with four early kills and Briggs had two, with Annawan taking a 5-4 lead.
A series of errors then plagued the Stags and Coach Jennifer Hayes wanted a little time to sort things out with her team down 8-5.
The timeout, however, only seemed to fuel the Bravettes. Celus and junior setter Clara Bella VanOpdorp each had a kill. Jones had a hand in Annawan’s next three points (a cross court floater that landed, a kill and she teamed with via Goodley for a big block) to expand the lead, 13-7.
The Stags called another timeout to try to stop the bleeding, but to no avail. Celus added two more kills and Goodley had one for the 19-10 Bravettes lead.
Briggs tried to keep her team in the game with two more kills, but Annawan countered at every turn. Celus, now in the back row, had two kills from deep and Jones added two more in the front to counter another kill by Briggs, but the Bravettes held a 23-12 lead.
Celus had one last back row kill to secure the 25-15 Annawan win.
Knowing a trip to the State Finals was on the line, the intensity heated up by both teams in the third and final game of the match.
Celus stepped up with three more kills at the onset, but she was matched by two more from Briggs and one from Beekman with Annawan having a narrow 6-5 lead.
A series of ties followed, the last one being 9-9. In that run of points, VanOpdorp scored on a floater, Celus had a back set to Jones and Celus had a kill.
At that point of the match, Hartsburg-Emden began to gradually pull away. After Briggs drilled a kill that gave the Stags a 13-10 lead, Bravettes Coach Gina Peterson called for a timeout.
In another run of points, Briggs had a tip and a kill, but Annawan continued to counter punch with two kills and an ace by Celus. The Stags, however, still maintained a 17-14 lead.
Through the next stretch, the Hartsburg-Emden setter, Celia Cross, mixed it up by going to Eeten and Beekman for the putaways. After those two points and a hitting error by the Bravettes, Coach Peterson called a final timeout with her team down 20-16.
Jones added one more kill and Celus had the final kill of her high school career in the closing moments of the match, but Annawan came up short, 25-19.
Celus had an impressive stat line of 22 kills, seven assists, seven digs and an ace. Jones added 10 kills, 11 digs and one assisted block.
Feeding the Annawan hitters was VanOpdorp, who had 26 assists on the night. She also had four digs, one kill, one ace and one block assist.
Elaina Manuel had eight digs, three assists and three assisted blocks. Goodley contributed four digs, three block assists, two kills and one ace.
Hannah Heitzler chipped in with seven digs and one kill. Brynn Harper had three digs.
The Bravettes closed out their season with a record-setting 29 wins and seven losses. They also collected regional and sectional titles en route to being the first Annawan volleyball team to advance to the Elite Eight.
