Hornets ready to break through glass ceiling

“We’re going to state next year.”

It sounds like a line out of the TV series, “Friday Night Lights,” but it was what Lexie Riggins told her Chelsea High School volleyball teammates following the conclusion of last season, the third straight that saw the Hornets advance to the Class 6A Super Regionals, but no further.

Entering her senior year, Riggins knew she had the pieces around her for Chelsea to have the kind of season it has so far. The Hornets just wrapped up a 38-7 regular season, including a 12-match winning streak in the midst of the 45-match slate.

“There was no doubt in my mind that this was the team that was going to do it,” Riggins said. “I feel like everyone’s confident.”

Riggins is one of the outside hitters on a Hornet team that has the capability to blow teams away with its potent offensive attack. But for any hitters to be successful, they have to be set up for the kill. That’s where Taylor Hackett comes in, the self-proclaimed “QB” of the team.

If you would even call it such, that is as far as Hackett goes into self-adulation. She credits her success as a setter to the prowess of her hitters, Riggins, Jules Hamer, Maurica Marsh and Princes Embry.

“It’s so exciting,” Hackett said of the team’s success this season. “Having big hitters, a good defense and a good group.”

Thanks to going 3-1 in Class 6A, Area 8 play and competing in a three-team area, the Hornets now have the luxury of knowing they have already qualified for super regionals.

Chelsea won both of its matches against Pelham during the season and split with Helena, the loss coming in a five-set match. As a result, the Hornets will host the area tournament. The top two finishers in each area advance, and Chelsea will play the winner between Pelham and Helena in the area tournament championship game on Tuesday, Oct. 18.

“It’s more relaxing,” Riggins said. “At the same time, we have good teams (in the area). We have to show up and play.”

The Hornets have had some big wins this season, including a sweep of Class 7A Tuscaloosa County in the Smiths Station Invitational in late August. More recently, they knocked off host Hillcrest-Tuscaloosa in its tournament Oct. 8. In that tournament, Chelsea won all 12 sets it played in a dominant performance.

“That’s probably the biggest win we’ve had all year,” Riggins said.

Riggins and Hackett both cite the team’s chemistry off the court as a major component to its on-court strength. Hackett considers herself to be an encouraging force. Riggins sees the zeal that the Hornets have for the game.

“We’ve all had the passion to win, but to have the passion to win for each other makes the big difference between going to the Sweet 16 and going to state,” Riggins said.

In Jessica Pickett’s three seasons at Chelsea, the proverbial glass ceiling has been the Sweet 16. The Hornets have yet to break through to the state tournament, which would require them to win two matches at the Cramton Bowl Multiplex Friday and Saturday, Oct. 21-22.

When that fact is mentioned to Riggins, the thing that came to mind was the final embraces between teammates at the conclusion of a season. As one of six seniors (including Hackett, Marsh, Embry, Sarah Prince and Olivia Moody), she is attempting to delay that inevitability as long as possible.

“I don’t want to say goodbye to them or anybody. That’s the last thing I want to happen. The only way to not have that happen is to keep going,” she said.

There’s only one way to do that.

“Make it to state,” Hackett said. “Keep staying positive and keeping that energy and having fun.”

Stay tuned to 280living.com for continuing coverage of the state volleyball playoffs.