HOPE — One obstacle stands in the way of the Hauser volleyball team making its second state finals appearance in four years — Loogootee.
The Class A No. 8 Jets (22-11) will face off against the No. 2 Lions (30-5) in the semistate at 1 p.m. Saturday at Jasper.
The winner will play in the state finals at Worthen Arena on the campus of Ball State University in Muncie on Nov. 7.
The road to semistate wasn’t easy for Hauser. The Jets were down two-sets-to-none in the regional final against Indianapolis Lutheran, and then they made their biggest comeback of the season to win the match in five sets. Loogootee, on the other hand, swept its regional final opponent, No. 1 Trinity Lutheran, in straight sets.
One advantage the Lions have is only having to travel around 30 minutes to Jasper, whereas the Jets have nearly a 2 1/2-hour trip. They’ll take full advantage of that long journey to prepare for Loogootee.
“(Loogootee) is a really good blocking team, so we need to keep the ball off the net,” Hauser coach Jeff Case said. “We want to focus on avoiding their strengths, attack their weaknesses and focus more on our offense.”
The Lions are led in blocking by Kylie VanHoy with 74 total blocks on the season. Her, along with her sister Makenzie VanHoy are the top two attackers on the team with 379 and 230 kills, respectively.
Case said Loogootee likes to keep the ball in play and plays really good defense.
“It’s really going to come down to eliminating unforced errors,” Case said. “Being able to run an offense where we can take some swings, but keeping it clean.”
The Jets and Lions have two opponents in common — Trinity and Castle.
Hauser fell to Castle 2-0 and to Trinity 3-0. Loogootee lost to Castle 2-0 and to Trinity during the regular season, but avenged the loss to the Cougars by beating them in the regional final.
Hannah Johnson leads the Jets in kills this season with 382, Andie Clark leads in digs with 755, Adrianna Musillami leads in aces with 69, Kenze Bostic in total blocks with 69 and Aunaka Wasil in assists with 874.
Case said first-contact balls are going to be a crucial factor in determining the outcome of the match.
“In the sport of volleyball, that’s every game, but it’s compounded now at this level because you don’t have a whole lot of room to play with,” Case said. “You have good teams, and you have to keep the unforced errors down.”
Case also said serving and serve-receive also will play a factor.
“Definitely, our serve-receive so we can run our offense, and we can be in our offense and not out of system, so first-contact is crucial on serve-receive,” Case said. “Definitely on serve, we have to hit a high percentage, but at the same time, we have to be aggressive to get them out of their offense.”
