Hartsburg-Emden volleyball wins 7th
grade state championship
[March 16, 2026]
The Hartsburg-Emden Stags won the 2026 IESA 7th Grade Class
1A State Championship on Saturday afternoon at Clinton Junior High
School.
The Stags defeated the defending state champions, Carrollton St.
John, on Friday night in the first round of the state tournament.
The Stags won in three exciting sets. After winning the first set
25-21 the Stags lost set two 23-25 and rebounded to win set three
25-21.
Lila Cross led the Stags with 12 kills versus Carrollton.
Piper Leesman added 11 kills.
Eisley Moos led the Stags with 10 assists and 7 digs.
In Saturday’s semifinals the Stags defeated Decatur Unity 25-22 and
25-22.
Lila Cross led the Stags with 9 kills versus Unity and Piper Leesman
added 7 kills.
Lila Cross had 6 assists and Eisley Moos had 5 assists.
Moos and Leesman led the Stags with 8 digs apiece.
The battle for the state championship did not disappoint volleyball
fans as the Stags took on the Ottawa Marquette Knights, who entered
the match with a 26-1 record.
After losing the first set 25-19, the Stags came from behind in the
next two sets to win 25-22 and 25-19.
In set two of the championship match, the Stags fell behind 7-3 and
then 10-6. By the time the Stags were down 15-8, Coach Jennifer
Hayes called a timeout.
The Stags responded with two kills from Piper Leesman and a tip/kill
from Lila Cross. Along with a few errors by the Knights, the score
reached 16-13 before another timeout.
This time with Leesman at the service line, the Stags went on a 5-0
run. After a kill by Cross down the line, there were a few errors
committed by the Knights and finally an ace by Leesman to put the
Stags on top 18-16.
While the rest of the set would continue to be close, the Stags
would never give up the lead. After an ace by Eisley Moos the Stags
lead was 20-17. A kill by Cross kept the Stags on top 23-21. A foot
fault violation by the Knights made the score 24-22 and finally
Leesman forced a third set with her game-winning kill to end it at
25-22.
The Stags fell behind 5-1 to start set three. After a lift was
called on Cross, the Stags were down 7-3 but then the comeback was
on. Moos served the team all the way to a 9-7 lead.
During the 6-0 run by the Stags Cross had a huge game-tying kill
that changed the momentum and then Moos served an ace for the 9-7
lead. Kacie Hardy’s ace put the Stags up 11-8 and after a kill by
Cross the lead was 13-8.
With Jaelynn Hinch serving an ace for the Stags the lead was 15-12
and the Hartsburg-Emden crowd was loving every minute of it. That
15-12 game turned into 19-12 pretty quickly with Mia Westen at the
service line. Westen rattled off three consecutive points, including
an ace. Leesman also helped out with a couple kills.
A timeout was called as the Knights were pushing the panic button.
Following the timeout, the Knights were able to put down a couple
kills to draw closer to the Stags but after another timeout, Cross
hit the court determined to send Ottawa Marquette home with second
place.
Cross used back-to-back kills to stretch the lead to 21-16 and the
meltdown was in full effect on the Knights side of the court. With
Moos serving, the Stags had a 23-18 lead.
Cross was ready to close things out and she put down a great kill
for a 24-18 lead. The Knights answered with one more kill before
Cross secured the state championship with a kill deep in the corner
in no man’s land. The Stags captured the first place trophy with a
25-19 set three victory.
Lila Cross and Piper Leesman were both outstanding in the front row
for the Stags, each earning 23 kills.
Piper Leesman also led the team with 16 digs.
Eisley Moos had 13 assists for the Stags while Cross contributed 9
assists.
Credit the Stags for never giving up in this one. Even when it
looked pretty dismal and the fans were sweating in the stands, the
Stags simply found a way to pull together and score points, thanks
to the dedication and belief of their longtime head coach, Jennifer
Hayes.
Hayes called this season “a great ride” and looking back on it,
everyone would have to agree.
So buckle up and prepare to hit the highs and lows with the 2026
State Champion Hartsburg-Emden Stags!
“This whole post season for my 7th grade team has been like a dream
sequence,” began Hayes. “We have definitely had our ups and downs
this season. We started 10-0 and won two tournaments. Then February
hit and we spent thirteen days without a game due to weather and
cancelations. Then we were hit with illness that took out players
and I didn't have my full lineup for twenty days.”
“On Valentine's Day at our Round Robin tournament I lost not one but
two starters with broken fingers. They were out for the rest of the
season. So we started 10-0 and then we went 3-7 for the next ten
matches. We were pretty down as a team. We had fourteen days before
regionals to switch our entire lineup. I had a hitter have to become
a setter (Eisley Moos) and a 6th grade sub become a starter (Kacie
Hardy) and a 5th grade newbie (Mia Westen) become a star-serving
libero. Mia only missed one serve the whole state tournament even
with the match on the line, time and again. So in fourteen days we
went from losing two starters to the postseason and that is crazy!”
Hayes marched her mostly small but mighty lineup into Clinton Junior
High School on Friday night in the Elite Eight. Lila Cross and Piper
Leesman are the Stags two tallest players and they were definitely
relied on heavily to carry the team towards the state championship.
“Friday's match against Carrollton was tough,” said Hayes. “They
were very fundamentally solid and experienced. They had no intention
of losing to us. We came in and played a very solid match. I thought
we stayed calm in an electric atmosphere and played our game. We won
in three sets: 25-21, 23-25 and 25-21.”
“Saturday’s semifinal went a little smoother,” said Hayes. “I felt
the matchup was better and we were more confident. We had a great
first set winning 25-22. Then set two we were really in a groove and
got up to a resounding 24-15 lead and made a mental blunder and gave
Unity the ball at 24-16. Then in pure 7A fashion, we started to
unravel. Points 17-18-19. Time out and regroup. Then points 20-21-22
and another timeout. I had to have a heart-to-heart with team and
say, “Girls, you are making this way too hard. The game is yours.
You have one play to make. Do it!”
“So back out we go,” continued Hayes. “Now I'm out of timeouts and I
have girls tearing up, the whole thing. Now the gym is loud and the
fans are going crazy with the score 24-22. The girl serves before
the whistle. There is a re-serve and the official whistles to serve
and the player hesitates and then hesitates again. The official
blows the whistle and in five seconds they lose the serve. I get the
point, which is point 25 and the match is over.”
This pushed the Stags into the state championship with Ottawa
Marquette at 3:15 p.m.
“Ottawa Marquette just annihilated Cissna Park, who I thought would
win, in their semifinals,” began Hayes with this story. “We had
beaten them in a three-set thriller in 8A in 2023 in Kankakee. So
the first set starts out with a kill by Piper Leesman. Awesome! Then
a side-out. Then six straight points on Hartem errors. It was not
going well for us. My two experienced players were playing well, my
other players, not so much. I called a timeout and tried to inspire
so back out we go. Still not good. We battle and my anchors keep it
close but we cannot make up for those six points. We lost set one.”
“Set two was not much different,” said Hayes. “At 10-16 it was not
looking good for the Stags so I called my second timeout and got
down on one knee and had to bring out the 1990's Coach Hayes. No
more “Mrs. Nice Coach.” Through gritted teeth I had to get on them
pretty hard. I shocked them into reality. I reminded them who they
are and what team they play for and sent them back on that court. By
golly, they climbed out of that hole they dug one point at a time.
Piper Leesman went back there and served us to a 17-16 advantage and
off we went. We had new life and we battled to a 25-22 game.”
[to top of second column] |
2026 7th grade IESA State Champion Hartsburg-Emden Stags. Photo by
Teena Lowery
The big sister/little sister
volleyball connection. Lila Cross and Celia Cross and Mia Westen and
Alayna Briggs. Photo by Julie Cross
With one more set to play in the 2026
season, given the history of this volleyball program, don’t bet
against Coach Hayes.
“We came out on fire in set three,” said Hayes. “We were playing
great. We were confident. We really had them on their heels and we
had a pretty big advantage. They gained some back but it was really
all us. We finished it with a great volley and a Lila Cross kill for
point 25. It was something else. Just glorious!”
Add this trophy to the glass case with
many others. Hayes and her teams have collected some impressive
hardware over the last three decades.
“This is number 16 for me in 7A class and 31 junior high (trophies)
overall, so far,” said Hayes. “As crazy as it sounds, they are all
just so different but this one just hit a little different. First,
it was a long gap for me. My last 7A title was in 2018. In 2019 we
got third place and in 2020 I was ninety-nine percent sure we were
going to win it all. We were 24 hours from the tournament when the
world shut down from Covid. That took out 2020 and 2021. We got back
to the tournament in 2022, but bowed out in the first round. That
same group won as 8th graders the next year. They just needed a year
in that atmosphere. Then unfortunately, in 2024 we came up against a
very talented West Lincoln Broadwell team and in 2025 we finished in
third place, losing to Cissna Park.”
That 2024 WLB team that beat the Stags was coached by one of Hayes’
own former star players, Kaylee (Beekman) Lowery.
“So this was our year,” believed
Hayes. “All the pieces were in place. So it broke my heart when I
lost those two players who broke their fingers. I was like you have
got to be kidding me. But we buckled down and gave it all we had,
day after day with nothing to lose and it was spectacular! It just
shows what can happen with a lot of hard work, a lot of belief and a
little luck along the way.”
Congratulations to the 2026 State Champions Stags, who finished the
season with a 21-7 record.
And congratulations to Lila Cross, who was named the Stags recipient
of the IESA Sportsmanship Award for the second year in a row at the
state tournament.
Members of the team:
Laney Coers
Piper Leesman
Lila Cross
Eisley Moos
Ava Givens
Tempe Nothnagle
Sawyer Payne
Emma Boerma
Harper Whitted
Mia Westen
Anna Wrage
Kacie Hardy
Jaelynn Hinch
Avia Leesman
Managers
Ruby Boerma
Aristan Leesman
Coaching staff
Jennifer Hayes
Jordan Detmers
Shauna Wetherell
Tina Hoerbert
Abbigail Hoerbert
Sophia Bivens
Athletic Director
Ron Spencer
Stats versus Ottawa Marquette
Points
Eisley Moos 9
Piper Leesman 8
Kacie Hardy 7
Mia Westen 3
Lila Cross 2
Jaelynn Hinch 1
Kills
Lila Cross 23
Piper Leesman 23
Eisley Moos 1
Sawyer Payne 1
Assists
Eisley Moos 13
Lila Cross 9
Jaelynn Cross 1
Digs
Piper Leesman 16
Kacie Hardy 7
Jaelynn Hinch 3
Lila Cross 1
Sawyer Payne 1
Stats versus Decatur Unity
Points
Piper Leesman 13
Kacie Hardy 7
Jaelynn Hinch 6
Lila Cross 3
Mia Westen 2
Kills
Lila Cross 9
Piper Leesman 7
Blocks
Piper Leesman 1
Assists
Lila Cross 6
Eisley Moos 5
Jaelynn Hinch 1
Digs
Eisley Moos 8
Piper Leesman 8
Kacie Hardy 4
Lila Cross 4
Emma Boerma 1
Stats versus Carrollton St. John
Points
Piper Leesman 11
Eisley Moos 9
Mia Westen 6
Jaelynn Hinch 6
Kacie Hardy 4
Lila Cross 2
Kills
Lila Cross 12
Piper Leesman 11
Eisley Moos 1
Jaelynn Hinch 1
Blocks
Piper Leesman 1
Assists
Eisley Moos 10
Lila Cross 5
Piper Leesman 1
Jaelynn Hinch 1
Digs
Eisley Moos 7
Piper Leesman 5
Lila Cross 5
Jaelynn Hinch 4
Kacie Hardy 4
Sawyer Payne 1
Mia Westen 1
[Teena Lowery] |
