Crusaders get bounce back, knock Mustangs out in Class 1A sectional championship match

WHITE HALL, Ill. — The Unity volleyball team just couldn’t put it together on Wednesday night.

Unforced error after unforced error piled up for the Mustangs in their Class 1A sectional championship match against Springfield Lutheran. The Mustangs made 10 unforced errors in the first set and followed that with four service errors in the second set. Meanwhile, Lutheran took advantage and rolled to a 25-16, 25-17 victory at North Greene High School.

The loss put an end to Unity’s season in the sectional for the third time in the last three IHSA postseasons. 

“We just did not do the little things that we needed to do,” Unity coach Seth Klusmeyer said. “We were going to have to play one of our best games to beat them. They were 10 times better tonight than they were on Monday night.”

Lutheran head coach Katie McCulley was thankful her team was alive going into Wednesday. The Crusaders had been ravaged by injuries, including an ankle injury to their top hitter, senior Makenna Cox, last weekend in practice. 

Cox, who has recorded more than 500 kills this season, was limited in Monday’s 25-23, 25-23 semifinal victory over Hardin Calhoun. She didn’t jump at all on Monday.

“I wasn’t even supposed to play on Monday,” Cox said. 

She tried out the bum ankle in pregame on Wednesday. 

“I jumped for the first time in warmups tonight,” Cox said. “It was a little hard, but I think adrenaline kicked in. I couldn’t feel it.”

That was bad news for the Mustangs. Cox dominated at the net, hammering home a match-best 19 kills. 

McCulley was happy to have Cox, who also happens to be her niece, back at full strength.

“Her leadership and court awareness are something you can’t replace. It outweighs the mobility factor,” McCulley said. “She got a few points in the back row, but to have her leadership and court awareness was huge.”

With Cox able to be more mobile on Wednesday, McCulley tried to reign her in a bit.

“We don’t have to be powerful, just be smart, keep the ball in play and hope they will make some errors,” McCulley said.

Unity obliged. The Mustangs made a variety of errors in the first set and had trouble communicating, which led to some dropped balls. In the second set, Unity fell behind by double digits and never seriously threatened Lutheran.

“I think some of the pressure got to us,” said Unity senior Kyra Carothers, who had a team-high 12 kills. “We had good practices this week. I don’t think we were all together ready to go. You could see as soon as things started to go against us, we fell apart.”

Springfield Lutheran (36-3) moves on to Friday’s super-sectional at Meridian High School in Macon where it will face defending Class 1A champion Champaign St. Thomas More (31-7). Lutheran finished fourth in state last season. 

Unity finishes its season with a 33-4-1 record, the most wins in school history. The Mustangs won tournament titles at Southeastern and Pawnee and went undefeated at Sherrard.

“(The senior class) played in three sectionals, so that’s pretty impressive,” Klusmeyer said. “We set a school record for wins. They did a lot of things to be proud of.”