Eagles Volleyball Win First Ever State Championship!

Mere moments before playing Whitehouse Anthony Wayne in a Division II volleyball state final Sunday at Wright State University in Dayton, the Avon Eagles were huddled around a phone, watching the Avon boys win a soccer state championship. A few hours later they were state champions themselves, making the Eagles two-for-two. Not a bad day’s work. “Right before we started, if you heard us shouting, it was because we had just scored the goal in overtime for boys soccer to win,” said Londyn Stone. “When we saw that they won, we said to ourselves, ‘Okay, now it’s our turn.’ We definitely stepped up more because it’s a community. We all support each other no matter what. We were literally ready to walk out on the court and start our match, and we were still watching their game, trying to figure out what’s going on for them.” Playing the underdog role in which they excel, the Eagles completed their dream weekend with a four-set victory over the top-ranked team in the state. Despite a healthy dose of adversity halfway through the match, No. 3 Avon came through by the scores of 25-16, 18-25, 25-23, 25-22 to up their record to 27-1 and win the first state volleyball title in Lorain County history. In Saturday’s state semifinal, Avon made quick work of No. 2 Magnificat in a three-set sweep. “I think it’s, like, unreal,” said Lily Hamilton. “I never thought this was possible. As a kid, you hear, ‘Oh, state championship,’ but I never thought it was possible. So, to finish my senior year and to have this trophy… It’s an unreal feeling to go out there and put it down the way we did. I’m super proud of us.” This is the third year for the program under coach Kara Coffman, and the growth has been rapid. As freshmen, this year’s seniors won only nine matches, but Coffman came over from Vermilion the following year and everything just took off. “I think if you would have asked us our freshman year, after going 9-13, if we would win a state championship our senior year, we would have looked at you with total shock in our eyes and been, like, ‘That’s never going to happen. There’s just no way,’” said Stone. “But we just kept growing and growing as a team and we got what we deserved.” Part of that growth was learning how to take advantage of certain situations, like facing teams that had defeated you before. Anthony Wayne edged Avon in five sets in last year’s state semifinals and then went on to lose in the state final. Magnificat handed the Eagles their only loss of this season in the last match of the regular season. Bring on the underdogs! “My first year here, when they were sophomores, we were underdogs,” said Coffman. “Nobody expected us. We came out of nowhere. We won a conference championship, we won a district championship, and we made it to the regional finals. We just love being underdogs. We love being in that position. We love being underestimated. It does nothing but fire us up, because we are an amazing team and we have so much depth and so much power and knowledge of the game that when we study our opponents and come up with a game plan, we know we’re going to win.” According to Stone, being the underdog is definitely the way to go. “Being the underdog is what everyone should strive for,” she said. “You come out with no pressure. Coming into this match, we knew that we didn’t have pressure because last year they beat us and they were (in the state final) and we weren’t. So, we knew that the pressure wasn’t on us, it was on them. That’s the benefit of being the underdog.” All season, Avon has leaned heavily on its six seniors, especially the trio that Coffman refers to as the Big Three, Stone, Hamilton and Bethany Sherwood. Stone was electric with 21 kills, 24 serve receptions with no errors, 11 digs, one ace and one block assist. Hamilton had 18 kills—including the one that clinched the match—and also had 24 assists, two block assists and one ace. Sherwood’s numbers were a little down with eight kills and two block assists, but there’s a good reason for that. Midway through the third set, with the first two sets having been split, Sherwood went down with a left knee injury and didn’t return for the remainder of the match. The 6-foot middle hitter was named second team All-Ohio this year, and her presence certainly would be missed. Only it wasn’t. “The first thing that went through my mind was, ‘Is she okay? Let’s make sure she’s okay,’” said Coffman, “And then, ‘Who do we put in? How do we work through this?’ Luckily, we have depth. We have people who can play multiple positions, and we ended up coming back from being down in that set and then taking over and winning. I think the fact that they were under the net and Bethany stepped on them—they did this to our girl—really fired us up and made us want to finish that set for Bethany.” A very emotional player, Stone certainly was fired up. On the very next play she slammed a kill to the floor, a very clear statement. At the time Sherwood went down, Avon trailed, 13-9. The margin eventually got up to five at 15-10 and 16-11, but with Stone serving, Avon ran off four consecutive points to get to within one, 16-15. “I love having a chip on my shoulder,” said Stone, “saying ‘Our player’s down but we’re going to keep pushing. We’re going to persevere. We’re going to adapt to this and we’re going to be able to push through.’ So, after Bethany was hurt, it was just immediate off the rip. This ball’s going down, I’m getting a kill on this ball. I’m doing it for Bethany because she was supposed to be out there with us.” Eventually, the Eagles tied the score at 20 and at 22, and after falling behind by a point, they ran off three consecutive points, two on hitting errors by Anthony Wayne and then a big kill by Stone to clinch the set. “I knew we were going to recover,” said Stone. “We’re the type of team that adapts to everything that’s thrown at us. Obviously, it’s a little bit of a shock, our middle getting hurt, but we knew that we were going to be able to push back for it. Every single time we stepped on the court, we said, ‘We’re doing this for Bethany.’ Every point was for Bethany, and that’s how we got through.” The Eagles threatened to run away with the fourth set, jumping to leads of 10-3 and 11-4. But Anthony Wayne would not go down easy, cutting the margin to one, 17-16. Avon answered by scoring two consecutive points on kills by Hamilton and Kaitlyn Pojman, who contributed two kills and an ace and led the team with 25 assists. The teams then just traded points the rest of the way until Hamilton ended things with a kill down the left line. Amazingly, Coffman said that back in the summer she wrote down the following, “2025 state champions, Avon volleyball.” Certainly, she had the Big Three in mind when she did so. “I think when these three set their mind to something, there’s nothing that’s going to stop them,” she said. “So, I had all the faith in them and they had all the faith in themselves that we were going to persevere tonight, even with some adversity. We stayed determined, and we pulled out the win.”