Tigers turn away Spartans at state’s door

South Hardin won, 19-25, 25-23, 25-17, 25-8, and will return to state for the first time since 2021. Grundy Center’s season ends at 25-16.

It was the final game for seniors Kayden Muller, Paige Venenga and Kahlynn Draper.

“I’m excited that they were able to get us back to the regional final,” Grundy Center head coach Lori Willis said. “You just want that chance to play for state. And we could have easily taken a huge step back after graduating so many seniors but I feel like the seniors did a really good job of not letting that happen.”

The Spartans started strong with a 10-4 run in the middle of the first set keyed by three kills for Ryanne Brubaker, two kills for Venenga and a pair of aces from the service line.

The Tigers showed some fight facing set point at 24-15 but eight attack errors in the first set was too big of a deficit to overcome and Muller delivered the winner down the line on the left side.

“We stuck exactly to the game plan, hit all of our zones and attacked them really well,” Willis said. “And we did a great job of taking care of the ball on defense as well and forced them to make some errors.”

Set two was fiercely competitive — Grundy led as much as 13-8 before South Hardin whittled away and eventually overtook the Spartans for a 22-19 lead late in the set.

Willis felt that two calls late in the set were missed that went in South Hardin’s favor: an attack ruled out-of-bounds that she felt was tipped for a 21-19 South Hardin lead and a serve ruled out of bounds that made it 23-21 Tigers.

“The referees blew the call. That’s exactly when it went in South Hardin’s favor,” Willis said. “It’s hard to lose two calls like that.”

Emma Minteer delivered the set two winner to tie it up for South Hardin.

The teams traded scoring runs to start the third set, but it started to pile up against the Spartans on a hefty 11-1 Tiger run spurred on by four ace serves from Minteer that pushed the Tigers ahead 17-11.

“We were feeling the pressure,” Willis said. “And between that and things not going our way, we were battling too much mentally in set three and four.”

Willis added that she felt the experience difference showed the longer the match went on — South Hardin is led by four major senior contributors, including all-staters Ava Paige and Ava Salvo; Grundy played a handful of underclassmen through their rotations on Wednesday, including two freshman in Trinity Jirovsky and Jenna Blythe.

But Willis noted that the underclassmen were critical in getting to this point — Brubaker, a sophomore, led the team with 12 kills on Wednesday, and Jirovsky had five kills. Venenga added seven kills and four ace serves and Muller had three kills with an ace.

“Our seniors did such a good job of taking them underneath their wing and getting them to where they needed to be, because without those underclassmen, we would’ve never had the growth we had,” Willis said. “Just insane growth, and that’s all on those seniors’ leadership willing to take those young girls to great places.”

The Tigers were just too much once they had their claws in the Spartans, serving tough as Grundy’s passing couldn’t find a rhythm.

“You gotta pass the ball,” Willis said. “If you can’t pass the ball, we can’t do what we want to do. That’s the name of the game.”

South Hardin started the fourth set on a 12-1 run and it didn’t get much better for the Spartans.

“We really just cleaned up our errors,” South Hardin co-head coach John Teske said. “We wanted to make sure that we got our attacks in, swinging confidently, and they started doing that a little better and cutting down on those errors. [Brubaker] improved a lot from earlier in the season, she really was hitting the ball down on us very well but we were able to get some blocks up on her and we liked moving her around to keep her from closing out blocks on us.”

It’s not where the Spartans wanted to end up after a state semifinalist run last year, but Willis says the future is no less bright.

“These young girls need to hit it hard in the offseason just like everybody else,” Willis said. “Get in the weight room, go out for other sports so that they can compete — I want competitors out there. And we had a couple young girls out there where we really needed their voice, so I hope to see them step up into that leadership role and be the voice on the team, and they are going to get that opportunity next year.”