State championship banners line the western wall of Hamilton Southeastern High’s gym.

One dates as far back as 1981, for a Royals football team, and a couple are as recent as 2018 for girls track and field and boys lacrosse. Girls golf can boast of three and softball two. But girls volleyball owns none.

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Every day those Royals walk into the gym for practice they eye that wall and visualize the missing banner. Every match, too. When the team won its third sectional title and first regional championship in 2015 that season was about building the foundation for the winning culture coach Jason Young wants for his program. The team’s motto that year? “Own the Gym.”

2018 is about seizing opportunity with a sense of urgency and establishing that culture. Young and his Royals, with a motto of “Together as One,” believe they have the talent to make it to state and shake off the postseason disappointment of the past two years.

“We’ve talked a lot about it this year,” senior captain Taylor Shelton said. “This year our team is more of a family than anything else. In past years we just haven’t worked together as well but there’s no drama this year on the team. Everyone fits together as one.”

Hamilton Southeastern is ranked fourth in Class 4A behind Yorktown, Providence and Castle as of an Oct. 1 Indiana High School Volleyball Coaches Association poll. At 23-7 before Tuesday's match, the Royals have navigated what MaxPreps ranks as the toughest schedule in the state and recorded wins against Carmel, Noblesville and Fishers, among others. All in the hopes of being ready for sectionals — Hamilton Southeastern plays Fishers again next week.

Anderson, Carmel, Westfield and Noblesville are also in the sectional.

“We want that challenge early so that come later in the season when you’re playing in a sectional environment it’s kind of been there, done that,” Young said. “It was helpful for us when we played against Fishers in our annual rivalry against them in the Mudsock. We’re playing in front of 800 to 1,000 people that are in the community cheering both sides on and I felt like we were at peace when we played.”

The two years of early postseason exits started against Carmel in 2016. The Greyhounds ousted the Royals in each side’s sectional opener in a five-set thriller. Carmel won the last set 17-15, and Hamilton Southeastern finished 27-5. A year later in the sectional semifinals against Noblesville, a team Young’s squad beat during the regular season, the Royals squandered a first-set win and lost in four. Season ended at 25-9.

Young and Noblesville coach Steve Hawthorne both say if it’s not the toughest sectional, it's at least a part of the conversation. A shark pond. Favorites never coast through and regular season results, as beneficial as they might be for morale, don’t guarantee postseason success.

“Last year we had nine seniors on our roster and a lot of those kids had been on varsity for at least two years, if not three,” said Hawthorne, whose Millers would lose in the regional championship to Yorktown. “For us, it took a lot of time, honestly. It took a lot of time for us to get to the point and wait for our moment to shine. We’ve got several other competitive teams in that sectional and at the end of the day I think our experience is what helped pull us through that.”

Indy-area schools in the top 20 behind Hamilton Southeastern include No. 6 Avon, No. 8 Center Grove, No. 11 Fishers, No. 13 Roncalli and No. 18 Carmel. Hawthorne considers Hamilton Southeastern and Avon the class of the group this year, with Fishers a close third.

The size of the schools around Indianapolis and the robust club volleyball scene are two major reasons for the cluster of talented programs. It’s why Shelton, who saw high-caliber players fall short of making the Royals, felt she could be confident in how far her team could go.

Young sees a group that doesn’t rely on star power to win as the 2015 crew did.

“We’re trying to be a little bit more balanced, a little bit more unpredictable when we get after it,” Young said. “Hopefully that’ll be a difference-maker for us this year.”

Hamilton Southeastern’s balanced attack was evident Sept. 27 when the Royals swept Noblesville, 3-0. Each time Young challenged his players to step up they responded. The Royals often even recovered mid-point if they made a mistake and stunted any attempts by the Millers to regain some momentum.

“He knows how he can push us and how far we can go,” captain and junior Lillian Leiner said. “When he sees that we’re slowing down or we’re just lazy on the court he lets us know so that we pick it up.”

In practice that means adjusting drills as the season progresses so no one becomes complacent and so the team peaks in October when it needs to most. On the court that means drilling home the point no opponent can be overlooked. Not when one loss means the end of a senior’s career.

“I want to leave here with a state championship and just leave my mark here at this school,” Shelton said.

Only then will Young say the winning culture’s established.

Follow IndyStar sports reporter Jordan Guskey on Twitter at @JordanGuskey or email him at jguskey@gannett.com.