Lady pirates advance to championship game

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Score! The Lady Pirates cheer on their teammates during the IHSA State Tournament. Galena High School played Nashville High School and won in two matches: 25-14 and 25-2.

On Friday, November 9 the Galena High School Lady Pirates took the court at Red Bird Area. The team traveled to the IHSA Volleyball State Tournament on the campus of Illinois State University. In the class 2A semi final game, the Pirates took on the Nashville Hornettes.

In the first game, the Pirates came out slow and fell 5 points behind the Hornettes. Coach Wills called a timeout and reminded the ladies that they knew what they were supposed to do. “We weren’t scared,” said senior captain Morgan Wills ‘19. “We knew that we could win, we just needed that quick timeout to gather our thoughts and get the momentum of the game.”

Some strong teamwork in the middle of the match helped the Pirates bring the score to 12-12. After a great series of points, the team’s Wills got the serve and put 10 unanswered points on the board.

Nashville rallied at the end of the match and was able to pull out two more points before falling to the Galena Pirates 25-14.

In the second match of the game, Galena took the court and never looked back. Senior Drew Wasson scored nine points as the first server of the game. “It felt great starting the second match off with a lead like that,” said Wasson. “It really set the fire for the rest of the match.” Nashville earned one point on an attack error by Wills, and took control of the match, but lost it again to the Lady Pirates..

When senior Samantha Stoffregen took the serve, the score was 9-1. Stoffregen served 14 more times and Nashville was unable to score any points.

The final score of the game was 25-2 and as the Lady Pirates headed to their press conference, the excitement was palpable. “It is completely unbelievable and I am so proud of our team,” said Mackenzie Muehleip ‘20. “We never thought we would end up in the state tournament but we worked really hard and got here.”

This win places gives the Lady Pirates the opportunity to play versus the Pleasant Plains Lady Cardinals in the Class 2A State Championship game. After today, the Pirates feel they are ready. “In the beginning of the season, I had was told that we were going to be in the state championship, I wouldn’t have believed it,” said McKenna Curran ‘20. “Our hard work all season has paid off and we have to play our hearts out tomorrow.”

Galena High School takes the court at Red Bird Area at approximately 1:55 pm on Saturday, November 9.