No. 5-ranked Southeastern overcomes first set woes, advances to sectional final against No. 4-ranked Hartsburg-Emden

ABINGDON, Ill. — The mantra for most coaches in the postseason is to “play them one game at a time.” 

Southeastern coach Tim Kerr kind of thumbed his nose at that thought.

After watching his team defeat Princeville 25-27, 25-19, 25-20 on Monday night in the semifinals of the Class 1A Abingdon Sectional, Kerr admitted he’s been looking forward to Wednesday night’s sectional championship game against Hartsburg-Emden. The Stags advanced to the title match with a 25-20, 25-11 victory over Roanoke-Benson.

“We’ve kind of been anticipating being in this game,” Kerr said. “We’ve done a little bit of homework on them. They’re awfully good. They do nothing but eat, drink and sleep volleyball over there. They’ll be a handful.

“By no means did we overlook Princeville, but you have a lot of time on your hands, so you look where (Hartsburg-Emden likes) to set the ball and hit the ball. They do a few things differently. We know where they’re coming from. We’ve had to tinker with a little bit of stuff defensively.”

Hartsburg-Emden is ranked No. 4 in the MaxPreps Class 1A state poll. Southeastern (36-2) is No. 5, and Princeville (27-3) is No. 7.

“It’s fun to consider yourself to be in the conversation,” Kerr said.

The Suns struggled out of the gate, trailing 5-0 and 8-1 in the first set. They got within 23-18 and 24-21, then scored two points to get within 24-23. An illegal alignment against Princeville tied the score, but the Princes never trailed. A hitting error by the Suns was the final point in the set.

“We fought out of it and righted the ship,” Kerr said. “What the first set told us is that we were the better team. That 8-1 hole was a function of nerves, bad luck and things not going our way. We realized we could play right with them, even though we didn’t feel we had played our greatest.

“My message to them was to just go out and don’t dig yourself another 8-1 hole. There was nothing strategic we wanted to do better.”

Taylor Wagner finished with 16 kills, Amanda Stephens added 13 and Abbey McMillen contributed 12. Ani Kerr had 41 assists. 

“We’ve had two nice players before, but never three,” Tim Kerr said. “Abbey McMillen is the best player no one knows about. All three of them, just time after time after time, got big kills for us.”

Southeastern last reached the sectional final in 2016. The Suns have won 12 regional titles but just one sectional title in 2001, when they finished fourth at the state tournament.

“At this point, this has to be in the top two or three seasons in my 25 years here,” Tim Kerr said. “I picked up my 600th victory earlier this year. That’s a lot of good seasons. We’re in pretty rare air this season.”