{"id":8029,"date":"2025-08-20T10:05:18","date_gmt":"2025-08-20T10:05:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/princetonillinois.com\/?p=8029"},"modified":"2025-08-20T10:05:18","modified_gmt":"2025-08-20T10:05:18","slug":"2025-princeton-volleyball-preview-tigresses-aim-to-build-off-last-years-postseason-close-call-shaw-local","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/princetonillinois.com\/?p=8029","title":{"rendered":"2025 Princeton volleyball preview: Tigresses aim to build off last year\u2019s postseason close call – Shaw Local"},"content":{"rendered":"


Princeton senior Kathy Maciczak sends the ball past El Paso-Gridley’s Eliza Meiss in last year’s Class 2A Regional semifinals. The Tigresses aim to build off last year’s close call against EPG and create their own postseason success. <\/span>(Scott Anderson)
Princeton came so, so close to knocking off El Paso-Gridley in the Class 2A Fieldcrest Regional semifinals.<\/a>
The Tigresses held two game points in the first set and led 13-7 in the second before EPG rallied for a 27-25, 25-21 victory. EPG took the regional championship over Eureka and went on to place fourth in the Class 2A State tournament, leaving the Tigresses a feeling of what could have been.
Veteran coach Andy Puck, who enters his 24th season at the Tigresses helm, said he hasn\u2019t brought that moment to this year\u2019s team, but will when needed.
\u201cI\u2019ll save that for may be times when we\u2019re down. \u2018Hey this is a fourth-place team at state that we really pushed last year,\u2019\u201d he said. \u201cTruth be told, we probably played them better than anybody postseason. Couple points go here or there and we go three (games) with them, anything\u2019s possible.
\u201cAnd they run the table. They win the Bureau Valley Sectional, they\u2019re super (sectional) and they\u2019re finishing fourth at state. And it very, very easily good have been us.\u201d
Makayla Hecht, a senior setter and co-captain, has extremely high hopes for this season.
\u201cOur team has a lot of talent, especially since we are returning quite a few seniors,\u201d she said. \u201cHaving this experience on a varsity team will help with our confidence and aggressiveness on the court. We have been working hard this offseason with workouts and games to get ready for this season.\u201d
Senior co-captain Camryn Driscoll, a defensive specalist, said the Tigresses have gained momentum in the summer.
\u201cOur summer league games and open gyms have felt different in a good way. We are bringing an energy this year that I\u2019m super excited to be apart of,\u201d she said. \u201cI feel like everyone has gotten stronger since last year and I can\u2019t wait for the games to start. We have junior front and back row talent coming in and we have four senior hitters and setter coming back.
\u201cOur senior class has been playing together for a long time and I\u2019m so excited to make this last season a memorable one.\u201d
There are six seniors returning with a taste of wanting more. Four of them have started since their sophomore season, including Hecht, Driscoll, and hitters Keighley Davis (MH) and Caroline Keutzer (OH\/OPP).
They are joined by classmates Kathy Maciczak (MH) and Keely Lawson (OH\/OPP) along with junior captain Ava Kyle, who was up last year to play a key defensive role.
Puck said all the girls have shown much improvement, especially Lawson and Keutzer.
\u201cThey\u2019ve deserved to play six rotations,\u201d he said. \u201cA lot of times you never know they\u2019re front row if they can carry the load play six rotations to be a primary receiver, passer and also be able to serve. Both middles, Keighley and Kathy, have really solidified things and created expectations amongst themselves.\u201d
Puck said it\u2019s fun to watch Lawson and Keutzer compete in practice \u201cbecause they really push each other. I always say, \u2018make each other better,\u2019 and that\u2019s what they\u2019re doing.\u201d
Davis and Keutzer earned first-team BCR honors, Hecht and Maciczak received second-team BCR honors and Lawson and Driscoll earned honorable mention.
\u201cWe\u2019ve got a lot experience. Definitely going to be very exciting,\u201d Puck said. \u201cWe had a real good summer league up at Sterling. Camp was super smooth. Talking to the coaches, freshman, sophomores, varsity, I feel like we\u2019re away ahead where we were last year. It\u2019s kind of here we go again and it\u2019s a fun thing to get through.\u201d
Junior newcomers are Danika Burden (MH\/OPP), Bella Clevenger (DS), Maegen Du Prez (OH), Madie Gibson (DS), Kiyrra Morris (DS), Olivia Sandoval (DS) and Josie Sierens (OH\/OPP). Sophomore Addi Parry will dress varsity as the back-up setter as will freshman Kolbi Lawson (OH\/OPP).
To take the next step, Hecht said, \u201cwe will have to push ourselves and each other to reach higher goals.\u201d
Puck said all the other five teams across the conference will be much improved with defending champ Erie-Prophetstown the team to beat once again.
Princeton seeks its first regional championship since 2021.
The Tigresses will open the season on Tuesday, Aug. 26 at L-P.
Kevin has been sports editor of the BCR since 1986 and is Sports Editor of Putnam County Record. Was previously sports editor of the St. Louis Daily News and a contributor for the St. Louis Cardinals magazine. He is a 2021 inductee into the IBCA Hall of Fame (Media) and a 2023 inductee into the Illinois Valley Hall of Fame as "Distinguished Media"<\/p>\n

source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Princeton senior Kathy Maciczak sends the ball past El Paso-Gridley’s Eliza Meiss in last year’s Class 2A Regional semifinals. The Tigresses aim to build off last year’s close call against EPG and create their own postseason success. (Scott Anderson)Princeton came so, so close to knocking off El Paso-Gridley in the Class 2A Fieldcrest Regional semifinals.The Tigresses held two game points<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8029","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/princetonillinois.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8029","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/princetonillinois.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/princetonillinois.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/princetonillinois.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/princetonillinois.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8029"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/princetonillinois.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8029\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/princetonillinois.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8029"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/princetonillinois.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8029"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/princetonillinois.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8029"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}