Avery Hobson’s senior volleyball season didn’t begin as anticipated after Hamilton Southeastern (Ind.) dropped its first match of the year to reigning Class 4A state champion McCutcheon.
Hobson is the team’s lone senior, and on Saturday, when the Royals squared off against McCutcheon again in the regional final, the 6-foot-1 outside hitter had that defeat in the back of her mind. She led her squad to a stunning 3-1 victory, recording 14 kills and 16 digs and earning JWS Player of the Week honors along the way.
“It was a battle the whole time. It was a lot of fun because the whole team was having fun,” Hobson said. “As a team, we knew what we were going against, and we knew how we played before. We just knew that if we played our best and gave it all we had, we just stuck with that.”
Fun, she says, is what sets the Royals apart. It’s what head coach Jason Young has emphasized all season for Hamilton Southeastern, which has won 32 straight matches since that season-opening loss to the Mavericks and is ranked No. 5 in this week’s JWS volleyball team rankings.
“I told the kids at the beginning of the year, ‘Our number one goal this year is to…
