Unbeaten Advance VB getting 'every team's best shot'

For all of the tremendous accomplishments that the Advance High School volleyball program has racked up over recent years, and there have been A LOT of accomplishments, the Hornets have never done one thing, which is put together an undefeated season.

And the program may not do so this year, either. However, Advance is working its way towards that.

Advance improved to 20-0-2 last week with wins over Dexter (3-1), Puxico (3-0), and Oak Ridge (3-0), and has a challenging week staring itself in the face this week.

The Hornets, who have won four of the past five MSHSAA Class 1 state championships, will travel to Notre Dame (16-4-2) on Monday, followed by road games at Bloomfield (13-10-4) and Zalma (3-16) on Tuesday and Thursday.

The long road trip continues on Saturday when the Hornets compete in the Jackson Varsity Tournament with games against Valle Catholic (15-4-1), Arcadia Valley (10-9-1), Poplar Bluff (6-9-2), Kirkwood (11-9-1), and Incarnate Word Academy (15-7-1).

“Every team that has been successful in the past couple of years,” veteran Advance coach Erin Hoffman said, “has had some really crazy personalities. (With this team) The personalities are all across the board and I think that makes them fit together.

“All of their personalities complement each other, and that makes them work together.”

The Hornets, and their wide-ranging personalities, have only lost one set (to Dexter) in the past nine matches. However, Hoffman saw that recent 25-22 loss to the Bearcats as a positive, not a negative.

“We needed to lose a set,” Hoffman said. “We need to get back into perspective what we are trying to do here, as far as getting better for the postseason.”

Hoffman said her team has a tendency to get a little too emotional or “too competitive” at times, which can adversely impact their focus and execution. However, again, that is a positive, in the eyes of the coach, not a negative.

“I would rather have to rein them in (emotionally),” Hoffman said.

Hoffman said that the Hornets’ opposition – in some matches – have “just gotten tired and we’re able to finish well.” However, that most assuredly won’t be the case, particularly in the Jackson event, next week’s Stoddard County Athletic Association Tournament, or the postseason.

“We are winning a lot,” Hoffman explained, “so I feel like from here on out, every team is going to bring their best game. I tell my girls ‘Every team is going to play you with everything that they have got.’

“That is something that we are going to have to deal with because we have put ourselves in this position.”