There the Bulldogs were, waiting as patiently as they possibly could — which could more realistically be described as impatiently with all the excitement flowing through the team — to walk across the stage in the middle of CEFCU Arena and hear their names called as the 2024 Class 3A state champions. Then, Mahomet-Seymour athletic director Matt Hensley dropped a box at their feet and walked away with a “Congratulations.”
Hensley called in a favor ahead of the Bulldog volleyball team’s 22-25, 25-22, 25-18 championship win over Limestone Saturday night, having shirts made to commemorate their title before it even happened. “It was really cool that he had that much confidence in us to get us shirts from the start,” senior Ellie Barker said.
It wasn’t until Barker brought that up in the post-match press conference that the rest of her teammates took a closer look at the shirts they’d been wearing for the last half hour.
Junior Lily Bosworth was the first to notice, her eyes widening and jaw dropping when she saw “Mahomet-Seymour” and a school logo beneath the big, bold “State Champions” across the front. She admitted she hadn’t seen that part and thought they were generic IHSA shirts, and it was evident from the frantic “Waits” and “Oh my Gosh” that filled the room immediately afterward that most of her teammates just discovered the same. Now with chaos surrounding him, M-S coach Stan Bergman leaned into the microphone and jokingly said, “I deal with this daily.”
Bosworth later said she was going to frame hers, even if she had no clue about the significance of it at first. Hensley gave her and the rest of the Bulldogs a pass this time. After all, they did just win the first state title in program history. “It’s unreal, but it feels so worthy,” Bosworth said. “We’ve put so many hours into this. After winning, it’s like ‘We just won state. What’s next? When’s the next game? When’s the next practice?’ It’s just a blissful feeling. We ended on top and accomplished a goal that every team wants.”
It sure didn’t look like it would end that way midway through the second set. Limestone (32-10) had the Bulldogs (39-3) beat. Dead to rights. The Rockets won a back-and-forth opening set and held a 19-11 lead in the second, sucking all the energy M-S had relied on throughout its historic postseason run right out of the arena. The Bulldogs were making one uncharacteristic mistake after another, playing tentatively and not looking anything like the fun, loose, spirited team they’d been all season.
“I didn’t know what else to tell them. I called the first timeout and tried to get them motivated to play a little harder,” Bergman said. “It just felt like we got out there and forgot our game plan. We were waiting for them to make a mistake, but we were the ones making mistakes and putting all the pressure on ourselves.”
The Bulldogs found many different reasons to keep fighting during that timeout. One came from Bergman simply calling them out and challenging them to play better, saying he couldn’t help them anymore and that they were going to have to be the ones to climb out of the hole they dug themselves.
Another came from the fact that they beat the Rockets twice in the regular season, earning a sweep on Sept. 13 at the Lincoln Invitational and winning in three sets on Oct. 19 at the Limestone Fall Classic. A state championship loss to a team they knew they could beat would have eaten at them for longer than they’d care to admit. And finally, the Bulldogs collectively realized this was the end, regardless of the outcome. It was a now-or-never moment, and they had to start playing for each other if they were to have any chance of coming back.
“I was like, ‘This is our last game. We don’t have to worry about what happens next, so lay everything out here,’” senior Addie Eisenmann recalled. “This is the state championship, the most important game of the season. This is what everybody plays for. Every girl who plays volleyball, this is their dream come true.’ One play later, that 19-11 deficit became 19-12. The next, it was 19-13. Then 19-14, and before the Rockets knew it, the set was tied at 20, and all the energy and momentum started flowing right back to M-S’ side of the net.
The Bulldogs regularly run a drill in practice called “23-20” to simulate having their backs against the wall and needing to string a few points together, but this was different. This was a 14-3 run against one of the best teams in the state. A borderline miracle in a championship atmosphere.
“They made an error, and we were like, ‘OK, that’s one more point,’” Bosworth said. “The points kept coming, and it was like, ‘There’s no stopping us now.’ Our energy was so much higher than theirs, and when our energy is up, there’s nothing that can take it down.” M-S kept riding that hot streak to a second-set win, and it continued in the third. This time, it was the Bulldogs with a 19-11 lead, but they weren’t going to give it up. When that final ball hit the floor, they added one last entry to the history books.
“It’s an accomplishment,” Bergman said as he looked at the gold medal around his neck. “It’s hard work, but teams all over the state work hard. This accomplishment is more on the mental side and the integrity of our team and how we pulled ourselves back together and grinded it out.”
Barker kept the team calm and collected and ended the match with 15 kills and eight digs. Bosworth caught fire in the third set and racked up 10 kills and four blocks. Ellie Dallas tallied 19 assists and 13 digs, and Erin Dallas put up 16 assists. Ava Yeakel recorded 13 kills, and Eisenmann added 13 digs.
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