Advance claims state title after dramatic 3-2 win over Miller

On Saturday the Advance High School volleyball defeated Miller High School in five sets by scores of 11-25, 25-15, 21-25, 25-9, 15-12. The win gave the Hornets the MSHSAA Class 1 state championship, their fourth title in the last five seasons. 

Photo courtesy of Caleb H. Swallows

The Advance offense was led by junior Alexis Hoffman with 24 kills and freshman Kyndall Hitt with 14 assists. Defensively, the Hornets were led by sophomore Addison Carlton who had 27 digs. 

Junior Abigail Kennedy, a freshman on the 2020 championship team that graduated seven seniors, said it was great to win a championship while getting to play.

“We proved everyone wrong, no one thought we could do it. My freshman year when we went to state, three of us that just won sat the bench,” Kennedy said. “That was great, we won a championship, but this year we did it on our own without those seniors and it was amazing.”

The opening set went in favor of the Cardinals from Miller, they came out prepared to defend their 2021 title and showed how dominant they could be. Set number two went to the Hornets who showed their state championship legacy with a wire-to-wire victory, leading the whole time.

Coach Erin Hoffman said the resilience of her team helped them come out on top in a game that could have gone either way.

“I thought that this game was probably the best game we’ve played all year,” Hoffman said. “I feel like that’s how a state championship game should be, two talented teams just going back and forth and fighting for everything.”

The third set was the last neck-and-neck set of the day before Advance dominated set four and most of set five. Set three went Miller’s way as they went up 2-1, Cardinals senior Emberlynn Kingsley led them with 14 kills and seemed to be in the way of everything the Hornets tried.

Coach Hoffman said in the final two sets their defense did a good job adjusting to where Kingsley was and defending her better.

“I’m lucky to have some really scrappy defenders and we’ve just recently gotten really good at being able to adjust to the other team,” Hoffman said. “So our players adjusted really well to where she was hitting us at.”

The final two sets went in favor of the Hornets and they were able to claim their fourth state volleyball championship.  This is the fourth championship in five appearances for the Hornets the first coming in 1979, and all four wins have been under coach Hoffman. The team has no graduating seniors so Advance volleyball fans should have something to look forward to next fall.