After stealing first set from St. Thomas More, Suns’ season sets with second-place finish

NORMAL, Ill. — The incomplete team with the imperfect defense nearly pulled off the improbable upset.

Tiny Augusta Southeastern, vying to become the school with the smallest enrollment to win the Illinois High School Association Class 1A volleyball state championship, stunned No. 1-ranked Champaign St. Thomas More 25-22 to win the first set Saturday morning at Redbird Arena.

“It was definitely very shocking for me,” senior hitter Taylor Wagner said.

Reality then set in.

The Sabers, with three players who have signed to play next year at NCAA Division I schools, were too tall and too talented for the pesky Suns. St. Thomas More won the last two sets 25-18, 25-17 to win the second state championship in school history.

The Suns finished with a school-best 39-3 record. Their second-place trophy tops the third-place trophy Southeastern won in 1981 and the fourth-place trophy from 2001.

Suns celebrate wildly after winning first set

“I’m sure there’s probably not a lot of betting going on in high school volleyball right now,” Southeastern coach Tim Kerr said. “I guarantee you that the betting line wasn’t great for us in terms of who expected who to win.”

As expected, Southeastern had a carefree attitude throughout the match. After winning the first set, the Suns celebrated wildly.

The match was delayed briefly before the second set began. The players turned to the Southeastern fans, pulling down their masks briefly to smile and wave during the break. Kerr walked across the court to whisper to KHQA-TV’s Chris Duerr, sitting on the floor near the official’s stand.

“Well, first I went to the bench and said, ‘I may be mistaken, but did they change the rules?’” Kerr joked afterward. “Do we still have to play two out of three, or did we just win? Is one set enough? So I just went over and told Chris I think my girls thought they won something.

“Hey, good for the girls. Good for us. Just the emotion was great.”

Single-blocker defense gave Sabers’ offense problems

The Suns knew they couldn’t match the Sabers’ power. Instead, they relied on tipping the ball offensively. The Suns beat the Sabers’ double and triple blocks with well-placed balls seven times in the first set. 

The Suns raced to a 13-7 lead, only for St. Thomas More to score seven straight points. Wagner had four kills down the stretch to keep Southeastern close, and her last kill of the set broke a 22-22 tie. Ani Kerr then served a pair of aces to finish the stunning first set.

“We were definitely the underdogs in this game, and I think we played really well,” said Wagner, who led Southeastern with 15 kills.

Southeastern also confused the Sabers, who played five players 5-foot-11 or taller, with its one-blocker defense. The Suns have used either Amanda Stephens or Abbey McMillen as a solo blocker all season and instead relied on its back row to keep balls alive. As the Suns scrambled on Saturday, the Sabers’ hitters often were taking swings against no blockers.

Yet the Suns kept digging up balls.

“They kept us out of system,” said Sabers libero Colleen Here, who will play next season at Illinois-Chicago. “They had some great touches.  Southeastern kept fighting, and I think that’s what really pushed us to keep fighting back.”

“They were just great defenders, and I think that’s what the state championship is all about,  having that tough composure and finding ways to score,” said Sabers setter Caroline Kerr, who will play next year at Tennessee. “They’re a good team. It was a tough game because they’re a tough team.”

St. Thomas More dominated second set

“We made a decision early on in the season that we’re going to try to do what we can with who we have,” Tim Kerr said. “If you have a 5-foot-1 point guard, you’re not going to take him down to the block and make him post up against the other team’s center in basketball. When Ani’s in the front row, she can’t get her fingertips over the net. She’s not going to touch any balls. So let’s drop her off and play a little defense and do the best we can.

“Quite honestly, I don’t know how it’s worked as well as it has, but it works pretty well.”

“I feel more comfortable single blocking, but it’s definitely a lot of pressure,” McMillen said. “Most of the time I don’t get it, but sometimes get at least a touch, and our defense is great.”

St. Thomas More dominated the second set. The Suns never led, and an 8-2 run put the Sabers ahead 16-9. A tip by Stephens stopped the run momentarily, but St. Thomas More scored five of the next six points to lead 21-11.

The Suns closed to within 23-18 before kills by Anna McClure and Mallory Monahan closed the set.

The score in the third set was tied at 10-10 before the Sabers scored four straight points, two coming on kills by Monahan, to go in front for good. Southeastern crept to within 15-13 after a block by Stephens, but a tip by Kerr capped a four-point run for the Sabers.

Kerr: ‘We needed something to cheer for, something to be happy about’

“I thought we passed the ball a lot better in the first set, but their serving, their pressure, their offense, was a little overwhelming, like it has been for 40 other teams this season,” Tim Kerr said. “I guarantee you were the only team here this weekend that plays the kind of defense we do. We played with the hand we were dealt.”

Stephens, who had 14 kills in two sets on Friday, only had seven in three sets on Saturday.

“If you know anything about the game, you’ve got to pass well,” Tim Kerr said. “Their serving and pressure and offensive execution … they were just relentless, bombing balls at us. We didn’t give Ani much of a chance to set the ball to our middles very often.”

When the final point was scored on a kill by Ohio State-bound Anna McClure, the Sabers celebrated — and Kerr did as well. He raced on to the court with his hands in the air.

“(During a timeout with the score 23-17) I said that most of the time you watch these things, and the team that wins goes out and dogpiles one another while the other team just kind of walks off,” he said. “I said, ‘Let’s not do that. Let’s make a decision right now that when that 25th point hits, and if it’s not us, let’s go out there and celebrate the fact that we’re second place in the state. 

“I didn’t think we were going to dog pile though, because I think they might have been afraid I was gonna jump on top.”

Kerr said the past few weeks have been almost a healing experience for the school and community.

“We have needed something to rally around because of all the blah and the doldrums of the last 18 months because of COVID,” he said. “We needed something to cheer for, something to be happy about. These ladies provided our community and our school and me with that. I can’t say enough about just how happy we are being here.”