Reaching new heights
Ranked No. 1 in the State, Olpe exceeding even its own expectations
By Michael Ashford
Thursday, October 26, 2006
Olpe — Just inside the locker room doors at the Olpe High School gymnasium, a paper ladder hangs on the wall with the words, “You can only go as high as the ladder you choose” written on the rungs.
The Olpe volleyball team made the ladder before the season started, with the idea being that with every milestone the Lady Eagles reached this season, coach Marilyn Stueve would move a paper volleyball up the ladder.
Trouble is, the ladder didn’t have enough rungs on it.
Olpe heads to the 1A State tournament Friday as the No. 1 seed with a 34-1 record, and the Lady Eagles have been so good this year that they had to add another section to their ladder once they reached the postseason.
“When we started the season, our goal was to have a winning season,” senior Megan Cole said, “but as we kept going, we kept looking for those goals and kept looking to climb that ladder. Now, we put those extra steps on the ladder so that we’d have to choose which step we’d get to at State.”
After a 14-14 record last year, the turnaround the Lady Eagles have made this year could be classified as dramatic, if not unexpected by some.
But Stueve said there was a lot more to it than simply winning more games.
“The talent was here,” said Stueve, who took over the program last year. “Getting them to believe in themselves, to buy into a new program, to trust me, to do what I was asking them to do and to learn and execute a new offense, those were all factors. The biggest plus I saw was that they all had a real enthusiasm for the game.”
A season-opening win over always-powerful Flinthills, which finished the season 31-3, should have been a signal to the rest of the state that the Olpe volleyball team would be a force this season.
“When we beat (Flinthills), it validated the fact that we are getting this put together and we are going to be a team,” Stueve said.
With wins on the season over teams like perennial volleyball powers Southern Coffey County, Waverly, St. Paul and Goessel — and even three wins over defending 2A State champion Lyndon — Olpe stamped itself as one of the top teams in the state, which was something the Lady Eagles had believed from the start.
“We knew what Miss Stueve expected of us and we knew what to expect of ourselves this year,” senior Kayla Krueger said, “and that just made us more determined. Our main goal was to make it to State, and we knew if we worked hard enough, we would accomplish that goal.”
Now the season comes down to the State tournament, which begins Friday at Gross Memorial Coliseum in Hays.
While Olpe rolled through the regular season — its lone loss was in a rematch against Flinthills — the Olpe players know that none of that matters anymore.
“We know that everyone is going to give us their best shot when they play us, and so that No. 1 seed doesn’t have anything to do with who’s going to win the game,” Krueger said. “It’s whoever has the most heart in the end.”
The new section of ladder that was attached once the Lady Eagles reached the State tournament added four new rungs. The paper volleyball now sits on the first rung that reads, “State Tournament.”
The next two rungs have “Third” and “Second” written on them as they go up, with the highest obviously being “State Champions.”
Once they return from Hays, the Lady Eagles hope to move that paper volleyball to the top rung and simply bypass the other two.
“I hope we can get it done,” Cole said. “It will be tough from here on out. We know we’re going to be playing the best teams in the state. We just have to see how we match up and give it our all.”
Lyndon hopes for repeat of last year’s State title
The Lyndon volleyball team will enter Friday’s 2A State tournament as the defending champions, and though the Lady Tigers have struggled somewhat this season on their way to a 24-10 record, the goal this year will be to repeat last year’s run to the title.
“Our season this year has had its ups and downs, but we have played well the last two weeks,” coach Janella Newton said. “Hopefully that will continue through this weekend. We are excited to go back to State, and reaching Saturday play is one of our goals.”
Stephanie Goetz leads Lyndon into this year’s tournament, as she has amassed a team-leading 242 kills this season in 640 attempts for a .230 hitting percentage. Two other Lady Tigers have topped the 100-kill mark, as Chelsea Schmitz has put down 133 kills while Cara Bolz has totalled 107.
As a team, Lyndon has 161 service aces, led by Goetz’s 31.