April 4, 2018 at 5:30 p.m.
Hauser girls head to state championship
Was it easy? No!
We played an excellent Barr-Reeve squad, and we will soon be playing another excellent team, Lafayette Central Catholic. From the latest Class A Poll I referred to (Oct. 9th), Barr-Reeve was ranked second and Lafayette Central Catholic ranked first while Hauser was ranked seventh. Rankings do not necessarily determine who will win as was just proven at the Columbus East Semi-State and has been proven multiple times over the years in volleyball and other sports. Now, let's relive what happened during the Hauser & Barr-Reeve match.
In the opening set, we pulled in the lead slightly at 7-5 only to soon fall behind. Then, both team were at 11-11 before Barr-Reeve went up 19-22. Fortunately, we found a way to victory at 26-24. I suspect all coaches feel better about their chances after taking the first set.
For the second set, we were down 1-3 but finally had a slight edge at 13-11. Our momentum continued as we won 25-16. How would Barr-Reeve react? It is not an easy situation to be down the first two sets in a volleyball match. The odds of winning the next set are likely low. Well, the Barr-Reeve players showed a lot of character and won the next two sets!
We fell behind 0-4 in the third set but managed to close the gap to one at 7-8 only to lose momentum again to get behind by six points at 9-15. We fought back to get within 13-15. It would be as close as we would get while losing 19-25.
The fourth set was close throughout the beginning and the middle. The score was 14-14 when Barr-Reeve pulled ahead and won 18-25. Now, the question was how would Hauser react losing two consecutive sets after winning the first two? Well, like Barr-Reeve earlier, the Hauser players showed a lot of character and won the final set!
I once again found myself not wanting to watch as when our two daughters played for Hauser and would personally prefer the fifth set to be to 25 instead of 15. Fortunately, the Jets got up and stayed up while winning 15-9! When we scored the final point, I admittedly was glad of the Rule of 15. It was a great match, our first time for taking a semi-state and our first time for being able to keep our volleyball signs up another week off of State Road 9! There were only a few unforced errors, and there were numerous great plays by both teams.
Many fans represented both schools, and we even had our school band which added spirit to a student body and crowd with lots already. I arrived in the Columbus East parking lot around 12:30 pm, and it was quickly filling up. My wife arrived later and found it to be nearly full. It is not a small parking lot!
Will our final match be easy? No! Will I be there? Yes! Will the Hauser Nation be there? Yes!
Special sporting events like this do not happen very often in our lives. As it is a moment for all of us now, it is also a moment for us to remember those who are no longer here but just as responsible for keeping the pages of our community and our school turning! (It might be a good time to reflect on the history of our town and school system.) While thinking about a well-known movie, We Are HAUS-ER!
And, we all are extremely proud of it![[In-content Ad]]
