The Cardinals volleyball team defeated No. 1 seed Clearwater during pool play at the state tournament Friday, but lost to Andale and Bishop Miege to be eliminated from state championship contention.
While they wished there was a trophy waiting for them at the end of their win, the Cardinals were glad to end the season with a victory nevertheless.
“If you would’ve told us last year, like, this is how our season would have gone, we wouldn’t have believed you,” senior Rayah Foltz said. “I’m just thankful.”
Being one of the final eight volleyball teams remaining this late in the season is an accomplishment the Cardinals aren’t taking for granted.
“Honestly, at the beginning of the summer, I didn’t have any expectation for us to make it this far, or to even end up hosting sub-state,” senior Ellie Suber said. “I’m just really proud of how far we have come.”
Senior Parker Long said making it to state and sharing the moment with her teammates is something she will never forget.
“I’m just grateful to be able to play with the girls we’ve been playing with for so long,” Long said. “I’m just proud of the team for making it to state. I mean, sub-state was a blast, and now that we are here, I think we are all grateful for this opportunity.”
Andale and Bishop Miege move on to the championship bracket along with Louisburg and McPherson. Bishop Miege will play Louisburg, and McPherson will play Andale in the semifinals at 1 p.m. today (Saturday).
Bishop Miege is the defending state champion.
Head coach Brooke Hopper said the losses to Andale and Bishop Miege were frustrating, but she couldn’t be more proud of the team for all of its achievements this season.
“For them to accomplish something this big and be one of the only eight teams in our class that gets to come and play in this tournament, it’s just a huge accomplishment,” Hopper said.
Match 1 vs. (5) Andale
The Cardinals came out of the gates with some nerves as they surrendered three straight points to Andale to start the first set.
Long said there were multiple things that contributed to the team’s nerves.
“The environment, I think, had a huge impact on us. It gets very loud very fast, and 3A was playing right before us and the gym was loud. That can be nerve racking for us,” Long said. “And we didn’t know Andale at all. We haven’t played them. So, it was definitely a new experience that we were not used to.”
The team was able to get things back on the right track, however, as the Cardinals scored six straight points to take a 12-6 lead early.
Senior Madison Karten provided a couple of big points during the streak with a kill and a block. Junior Indigo Pruitt also contributed with a block that secured a point.
The Indians continued to hang around and eventually tied things back up at 17.
Andale then scored four straight to take a 21-17 lead, but the Cardinals answered back with three straight of their own to make the Indians call a timeout.
The set continued to go back and forth. Foltz killed a ball to tie things up at 24 and force a win-by-two finish.
But Andale scored two straight to take the set 26-24.
The Cardinals opened the second set strong as they jumped out to a 7-3 lead. Long made an early spectacular play where she dove for the ball and hit it over the net to get a point.
Much as they did in the first set, Andale hung around and took an 11-10 lead, which caused Hopper to call a timeout.
Andale held on to the momentum as they scored five straight shortly after the timeout to take a 20-13 lead and then ended up taking the set 25-18.
Hopper said the lack of experience on the big stage for the Cardinals was tough to overcome.
“This isn’t just your everyday weekend tournament,” Hopper said. “I think most of the teams here have been here numerous years in a row.”
Match 2 vs. (8) Bishop Miege
In their second match, the Cardinals went up against the defending state champions in Bishop Miege.
The team knew it was in for a challenge against the Stags, but the pressure of playing them might have gotten to the Cardinals.
“I think we really wanted to beat them, but we kind of just got in our heads,” Suber said. “Things just weren’t going our way with that match and we definitely could’ve played a lot better.”
The first set started close. The Cardinals found themselves down by just two points at 12-10. Junior Addy Hemphill led the way early as she had a kill and an ace.
Foltz and Pruitt also had kills to help the Cardinals build up some momentum.
Bishop Miege took control, however, as they scored six straight points to go up 18-10. Eventually, the Stags took a 10-point lead at 23-13.
The Cardinals kept fighting and started to gain some traction down the stretch of the set.
Foltz provided back-to-back kills for the team and then had an ace late in the set. Karten also flew in for a big spike to give the team a point.
But it was all too little, too late for the Cardinals as the Stags took the set 25-19.
The second set was largely a struggle for the Cardinals. Bishop Miege jumped out to a 9-3 lead off six straight points, which forced Hopper to call an early timeout.
The Stags didn’t look back after that and took the second set 25-12.
Foltz said it was frustrating for the team to lose the match in the way they did.
“We definitely made them look better than they are,” she said. “We definitely could’ve played a lot better.”
Match 3 vs. (1) Clearwater
In between matches, the Cardinals took time to have a tough conversation about where their season was heading after the two losses.
“I just said, ‘Listen, we’re at a crossroads here. This is our last game no matter what, and I know it’s not something we want to talk about, but we have to talk about it, and it sucks,’” Hopper said.
Hopper said it was good for the team to sit and think about how they wanted to end the season.
“We had two games in between, and I said, ‘Go sit with the suck for just a little bit, but what we are not going to do is we’re not going to step on the court with that suck,’” Hopper said. “We can either continue this day and feel really crappy at the end of the day about how we performed and have a ‘should of, could of, would of’ situation or we can sit with the suck, acknowledge it, and realize we have an opportunity here to go out there and have a great finish to our season.”
The Cardinals buckled in and embraced that.
“We kind of just walked out on the court knowing that it was going to be our last game that we could play together,” Suber said. “We just kind of wanted to make it fun and support each other, and try new things if we could and just play our hearts out.”
The first set started slow for the Cardinals as they found themselves down 8-3 early.
The Cardinals continued to battle, though, as Foltz, Hemphill and Karten all provided points to get the Cardinals right back in the game and eventually in the lead at 14-13.
The teams went back and forth until things were tied up at 21.
Foltz put down a kill and Hemphill delivered an ace to put the Cardinals up 23-21. Then, Pruitt put down a perfect spike to give the Cardinals the 25-22 set win.
The second set started similarly to the first in that the Cardinals found themselves in an early hole, this time at 9-4.
Clearwater wouldn’t allow the Cardinals to get back into the set, but the Cardinals kept it close throughout.
Senior Harper Andrews delivered two big points with a kill and a block she combined with Suber for, and Karten also added two points with two kills late in the set at 24-22 in favor of Clearwater.
Clearwater took the set 25-23 to force a third set.
With nothing to lose in the final set, the Cardinals left it all out on the court.
“We really went out there and fought because it was our last game together,” Long said.
The Cardinals went up 16-10 after scoring six straight points led by Foltz and Hemphill who provided multiple kills for the team.
Now up 19-15, the Cardinals sparked a 6-1 scoring run to close things out. Foltz, Hemphill and Karten each had massive kills to help the Cardinals secure the 25-16 set win and the upset over the No. 1 seed.
Foltz said getting the win to end their season on high note was one of her favorite moments from the entire season, but there were a lot of emotions involved.
“At the last point of that last match, there were definitely lots of happy tears because we won that over the No. 1 seed, like, the game we were least likely expecting to win,” Foltz said. “So, that was super exciting, but also just a little bit sad knowing that was it.”
Hopper said she loved watching the girls after the win.
“I love seeing the smiles on the girls’ faces. They deserve this so much,” Hopper said. “They’re genuinely amazing kids and everything that they have earned, they deserve. I just want all of the success for them, and just seeing those smiles and that happiness after that game was well worth the rocky two games we played before.”
The Cardinals will have seven spots to fill next season as the team’s seniors move on.
Even though she is sad to see the seniors leave, Hopper said she hopes this is only the beginning for the upcoming players in making the Cardinals perennial state contenders.
“I just want to keep building. I think that they’ve proven to themselves that they can do this, and the younger girls see what it takes to be great leaders because we have such great leadership in our seniors,” Hopper said. “I think that they have really set the standards within our program, and I just want us to keep building on that. I don’t want to go backwards. I want us to be a name that you expect to hear when you hear the state tournament, and I know that we can do it.”
Hear more from Suber, Foltz, Long and Hopper about the team’s experience at state and their thoughts on this season by watching the Kaw Valley State Bank post-game show.
Here are the full results from Friday and where you can find results for the championship bracket.
Reach reporter Jack Denebeim at [email protected].
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