Competitive EHS falls in all 3 matches
By Michael Ashford
Originally published 09:24 a.m., October 27, 2007
Updated 09:24 a.m., October 27, 2007
TOPEKA — For being the seventh seed, the Emporia High volleyball team sure put a scare into a couple of highly seeded teams’ hearts Friday at the State tournament at the Kansas Expocentre.
The lowest seed of four teams in Pool B, the Lady Spartans took No. 2-seed Lansing and No. 3-seeded Newton each to a deciding third set — and even held late leads in both matches — before eventually losing to both teams, 2-1. A disheartened Lady Spartan squad ended its day with a 2-0 loss at the hands of sixth-seeded Great Bend to finish pool play with an 0-3 record, ending Emporia’s season at 27-16.
It was clear from the start, however, that the Lady Spartans, who were making their first State appearance since 1997, were not at the tournament to simply be the sacrificial lamb for the more highly seeded teams.
“We played tough and made the top seeds work for everything,” junior Hilary Heinrichs said. “We made them earn our respect.”
In the first match of the day, Emporia gave second-seeded Lansing all it could handle.
Emporia got out to leads of 4-1 and 12-8 in Game One before letting Lansing come back to tie the game at 14-all. Two kills by Julia Bates and a block by Bates and Brittney Lang allowed Lansing to push its lead to 19-14 before the Lady Spartans slowly began to chip away at the Lady Lions’ lead.
A kill by Ashley Lake drew EHS to within two at 24-22, and then a Lansing attack error made it 24-23. But Lang was true on a kill to end the match at 25-23.
In Game Two, Emporia again got out to an early lead before letting Lansing get back into the game with a 10-3 run. But the Lady Spartans rallied behind the hitting of Taylor Hollond and Hilary Heinrichs, who each had two kills — plus Heinrichs had two blocks — to help Emporia to a 10-3 run of its own to end the game at 25-22.
In the deciding Game Three, Emporia appeared to have the match won after a Lansing receiving error gave the Lady Spartans a 23-20 lead late.
But a net violation brought the Lady Lions to life, and they closed out the match on a 5-0 run to down EHS, 25-23.
“It (the net violation) was costly, but at the same time, it was just a girl being really aggressive to try and put the ball down,” EHS coach Kendra Bloomquist said. “I don’t know that it cost us the match, though. Things just didn’t bounce our way.
“For most of that match, I though we out-attacked them.”
For the match, Heinrichs led EHS with nine kills, followed by eight from Jessica Decker, seven from Sadie Webb and five apiece for Lake and Hollond. Lake also totaled 17 digs.
After a lengthy layoff, the Lady Spartans again took the court, this time against third-seeded Newton and its star, senior Camri Zwiesler.
Newton got out to a 12-8 lead in Game One, but Emporia came back with a 6-2 run to tie the game at 14. A Heinrichs kill on an overpass game Emporia a 15-14 lead, and the Lady Spartans never trailed after that, winning Game One, 25-21.
Newton had its block game going in Game Two, recording five blocks to go with four kills and three aces from Zwiesler to take the second game handily, 25-16.
In the deciding third game, Emporia built a lead early and kept it nearly the entire game, even leading 16-9 at one point. However, Newton cut into the Lady Spartans’ lead little by little.
With the Lady Spartans leading 22-20, a net serve drew Newton back to within one at 22-21. Emporia went up 23-21 after a net violation, and then Newton got a kill from Raeanne Yoder to make it 23-22. An attack error by EHS allowed the Lady Railers to tie the game at 23, and then two kills from Zwiesler — her 19th and 20th of the match — ended it.
“We had the lead the whole time, and all of a sudden, they just came back on us. It was really tense,” senior Amber Miller said. “I think we got a little comfortable with it, and then maybe we just got excited and didn’t finish.”
Decker and Webb each had seven kills against Newton, while Decker had 17 digs.
The loss knocked Emporia out of contention to advance to today’s bracket play. Newton won Pool B while Lansing finished as the runner-up.
In its third match of the day, an obviously flat EHS squad fell in straight sets to Great Bend, 25-16, 25-17.
“The emotional drain from those first two matches was very apparent in this last one,” Bloomquist said.
“It actually was a great day. Not a lot of coaches would look at 0-3 and say, ‘We had a great day today.’ I think we kind of shook some people up here after they thought we were going to walk in here as the seventh seed and just kind of get trounced. We didn’t do that. We represented ourselves well.”