HOPE — With the way Hauser junior Sydney Schoen was serving, Oldenburg Academy must have felt like it was in a horror movie.
Schoen and the Jets ended that nightmare in a hurry.
Hauser showed the other sectional opponents why it is the heavy favorite to win the sectional with a 25-11, 25-12, 25-18 win Thursday night against the Twisters.
The sectional host and Class A No. 4 Jets move on to face Rising Sun, which defeated Waldron in four sets in the first contest, in the semifinals at 12:30 p.m. Saturday. The championship match will be at 7 p.m.
“I was just pumped up before the game, and we were able to go out there strong,” said Schoen, who finished with seven aces, nine digs, nine kills and one block. “We all had a ton of energy, and the fans all came together and we were all super pumped.”
Hauser (30-3) had a tad bit of a slow start. The Jets led only 8-6 in the first set, but solid serving and a few kills from Brea Metz pushed the lead to 17-7, and they closed it out from there.
“We came out really loose and calm and we were able to serve really aggressive,” Hauser coach Jeff Case said. “We scored some points off the serve and took them out from what they were wanting to do for a little bit.”
In the second set, Schoen delivered five aces while serving 10 straight points to push the lead to 11-1. The Jets grew the lead 17-4 and put the set away for good.
Oldenburg gave Hauser a slight test in the third set when it cut the Jets lead 13-11. Hauser stood strong and went on a 6-1 scoring run and closed out the match.
“We have a lot of different plays we like to run, so we switch it up and try to catch them off guard,” said Hauser junior setter Alana Owen, who tallied 27 assists.
Metz finished with 16 kills and one block. Sarah Tedder recorded seven digs and four aces, Hailey Lange had seven digs and two aces and Tannyr Davis added seven kills and one block.
Despite being the strong favorite, the Jets know they cannot look ahead to regional just yet.
“We are going to take every team seriously,” Schoen said. “We will stay pumped up and go out there and know what we need to do and take it one game at a time.”
