JASPER — Class A No. 8 Hauser threw everything it could at Class A No. 2 Loogootee, but the Lions were just too much to handle.
The Jets’ bid for a second trip to the state finals in four seasons came to an end with a 25-19, 25-21, 25-21 loss in the Jasper Semistate Saturday.
Hauser never gave up in the match, but a couple errors here and there proved to be costly in the end.
Regardless of how Saturday’s results turned out, Hauser coach Jeff Case was proud of his team this season.
[sc:text-divider text-divider-title=”Story continues below gallery” ]Click here to purchase photos from this gallery
“That talk (in the locker room postgame) after a loss is always tough,” Case said. “There’s only going to be one team that won’t lose that final game of the season. It’s never easy, especially when you got some seniors that have meant so much to the program the last four years. It’s tough, there’s a lot of tears, but we didn’t have our best game today, but we got here. We got to be proud of that, and what we’ve accomplished this year getting to this point.”
The Jets (22-12) trailed 6-1 to start the first set, but then came back to cut it to 7-6. After both team traded points to make it 9-8, the Lions (31-5) then scored five straight points to make it 14-8, but then Hauser countered with a mini-spurt of its own to cut the deficit to 14-12.
Loogootee grew its lead to 19-14 until the Jets came back with two straight points to make it 19-16 to force a Lions timeout. Following the timeout, Loogootee extended the lead to 21-17, and Hauser didn’t have enough offensively to come back from the set.
The Lions didn’t make things much easier for the Jets to start the second set by jumping out to a 9-1 lead that forced a Hauser timeout. The timeout helped stall the Loogootee momentum briefly. Hannah Johnson served up a couple of line drive aces to help cut the deficit to 11-5, but then the Lions rallied for three straight points to lead 14-5.
The Jets didn’t give up in the set. They rallied for five straight points, capped off with an ace from Aunaka Wasil to get it to 14-10 that forced Loogootee to talk things over during its timeout. The Lions grew the lead back up to 19-11, but Hauser didn’t give up on the set, going on a 7-1 run to make 20-18. That would be as close as the Jets would get, and Loogootee would eventually close out the set.
The Jets got off to a great start in the third set. With the score 4-4, they went on a 6-1 to lead 10-5. Both teams traded points for awhile, but with Hauser leading 18-14, the Lions rallied for four straight points to tie the set at 18-18 to force a Hauser timeout. The Lions went on a 7-3 run to close out the match.
“It’s kind of reflecting on the positive things, what they’ve done and what we accomplished this year,” Case said. “Appreciate them as people, players and the hard work they’ve put in and the support we had for each other.”
For the Jets, Johnson finished with 12 kills and five aces, Wasil recorded 19 assists and two aces and Charlie Clark had 17 digs, five kills and an ace. Andie Clark notched 23 digs and two assists, Kyra Meister had eight digs and an assist and Sophia Musillami added four kills.
Hauser loses seniors Johnson, Wasil, Musillami and Marnie Schwartzkopf, but still return a solid cast that could potentially help it make another deep run next year.
“The younger players, they’ve seen what it takes to get here, what effort it takes and what you have to do, how they need to respond,” Case said. “Hopefully, we’ll keep working and step up. There’s a lot of good players in there coming up, and we’re really excited about that.”
