Another first for Brown County volleyball team, which reaches sectional title game

GREENFIELD, Ill. — The Brown County volleyball team is going places that no other team in school history has gone.

The Hornets won their first regional championship in school history last week. They followed that accomplishment Monday night with a 25-17, 25-19 semifinal victory over Raymond Lincolnwood in the Class 1A Greenfield Sectional.

Up next for Brown County (31-3), ranked No. 12 in the MaxPreps Class 1A state poll, is No. 5-ranked Springfield Lutheran, which defeated Mendon Unity 25-22, 25-23 in Monday’s other semifinal.

Hornets coach Katie Berens says her team isn’t nervous.

“They were actually pretty darn confident going into tonight,” she said. “We had done a lot of research on Raymond Lincolnwood, and we got to watch some game film before practice the other day, so we got to prepare for them pretty well. They were surprisingly calm and ready to go tonight, and I think that showed on the court. We came out strong, and we finished strong.

“To be honest, I was nervous going into the game tonight. Once I saw how calm they were walking out onto the court, it’s pretty easy to just ride that train with them.”

The Hornets never trailed against Lincolnwood (32-6-1). They took a 10-3 lead in the second game and never was threatened.

Katey Flinn had 10 kills and twin sister Klare Flynn added eight kills. Senior Cortni Law had seven kills, and Grace Hedden had five. Gabby McGath had 27 assists.

“Katey’s an outside hitter, and Klare’s in the middle,” Berens said. “There’s one rotation where they’re in front row together, but for the most part, they’re opposite each other. We’ve got a pretty good balance in terms of offensive strength. Cortni played really well tonight, and Grace was solid outside for us as well. 

“We’ve got a pretty well balanced offense. It helps us be less predictable, which is great in big postseason games like tonight.”

Berens missed two weeks at the end of the regular season when she gave birth to her daughter Juniper, but she returned in time for the postseason. When Mom is on the bench, Juniper is on the sidelines with her father and grandparents.  

“I’m back in full swing in terms of coaching. I feel fine,” she said. “Juniper comes to the games in her Hornets onesies. She’s going to be a volleyball kid for sure.”

Unity’s season ended, but not before first giving Springfield Lutheran a scare. The Mustangs led in both sets, including a five-point lead in the second set. Unity led 23-22 in the second game before Lutheran rallied to score the final three points.

“It was back and forth all night,” Mustangs coach Seth Klusmeyer said. “It was a very well-played game by both teams. We did have a few more errors, especially serving. We had hitting errors that we don’t normally have, and they hit the ball really well from the outside and took some really sharp angles. 

“I thought the two best teams in the sectional played in our match tonight.”

Junior Kyra Carothers had 10 kills, junior Kylee Barry had eight kills and junior Ashlynn Arnsman had seven kills for the Mustangs (26-11).

“We’ve got quite a bit of our offense coming back for next year,” Klusmeyer said. “We’ve got a good group of sophomore passers coming up who can fill some holes.”