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Advance's special bond helps team achieve exceptional goals
CAPE GIRARDEAU — The Advance Hornets have formed a special bond over the years.
That bond helped the Hornets win their second straight MSHSAA Class 1 volleyball championship Saturday at the Show Me Center.
“We’ve grown up with each other and been playing together for a long time,” junior Alyssa Miles said. “I think we have a chemistry that a lot of teams struggle to get.”
Over the past two years, the Hornets were a combined 75-4-1 and won what is believed to be a school record 38 matches this season.
The Hornets beat Santa Fe 25-11, 25-21 in the title match, ending a season where their only losses came against Class 4 teams.
Lindbergh beat the Hornets 25-21, 18-25, 25-21 in the championship match of the Jackson tournament. Jackson handed the Hornets their only other loss in a best-of-five set match, 30-28, 17-25, 25-18, 25-17 earlier in the season.
“We get to see all kinds and different calibers of teams in the tournaments we play,” senior Roz Schrader said. “There’s the not-so-good and the really good and that’s where we really learn, playing the really good teams.”
The Hornets won their third straight Perryville tournament championship, the SCAA tournament for a second straight year and finished second the Jackson tournament, which featured multiple Class 4 teams.
Advance won its first state volleyball championship last season, beating Calvary Lutheran, who it swept in pool play Friday, 25-12, 25-23 in the title bout.
“We just gel so well,” junior Meadow Morse said. “We have so much fun. We don’t have any tension. We’re all best friends on the court every time we play, and we have so much drive for the game.”
Advance coach Erin Hoffman didn’t see that chemistry begin to develop until last season.
“They’re not shy. They work together so well,” Hoffman said. “There’s no animosity or disputes. Who knows if they get along outside the gym, but when they step in the gym, they are a team. They’re goofy. They like to dance. They like to sing. They’re so much fun to coach.”
As was the case Saturday, the Hornets won the state championship last season at the Show Me Center, located about one-half hour away from home.
“There was a lot of comfort with us being here last year,” Schrader said. “We knew what would happen, what the atmosphere was like. That helped a lot.”
Morse agreed.
“I think it meant a lot that we had the chance to play here last year,” Morse said, “so we were familiar with the gym, and being from the area, it was comforting having so much orange in the stands and all the support from everybody. It means a lot.”
Community support helped the Hornets pull through tough times, such as the second set of the title match where Santa Fe went down swinging.
“It can make a difference,” Schrader said. “It really hypes us up, looking out in the crowd and seeing all these familiar faces, makes it feel like you’re playing in your home gym.”
The Hornets lose only two seniors from this year’s team — all-stater Schrader and Alyssa Massa — so winning a third straight state championship next season is realistic.
“That’s the goal,” Miles said.