The Emporia High volleyball team had one of the better weekends that coach Kendra Bloomquist could remember, piling up a 5-1 record at the Rossville Invitational.
The Lady Spartans (8-4) finished third in the tournament, highlighted by a win over previously unbeaten Salina Sacred Heart, ranked second in Class 3A, and two victories over another unbeaten, Tonganoxie.
“We did some great things this weekend,” Bloomquist said. “The big thing was we blocked the ball and played the net better than we have in years.
“This was the best weekend I’ve seen in a long time out of an EHS volleyball team.”
EHS opened pool play Saturday morning with a 2-1 (25-23, 19-25, 25-15) victory over Sacred Heart, a match that served as a coming out party for senior Sadie Webb, who registered a team-high nine kills.
“Sadie Webb just abused one of their middle hitters,” Bloomquist said.
Hilary Heinrichs led Emporia’s charge at the net, tallying six blocks, while Ashley Leihsing and Jessica Decker each getting four blocks in helping hand Sacred Heart its first loss of the season.
In the second match, EHS dropped the first game to Tonganoxie 13-25 before rebounding to take the next two games, 25-20 and 25-21, to knock the Lady Chieftains from the ranks of the unbeaten.
Bloomquist said she was happy to see her team come back to win the match after watching teams in the previous few seasons close up shop once they got down.
“They could’ve turned it in right here, but they didn’t,” Bloomquist said, “They were determined. They knew what they had done wrong after the first game, and they took care of it.”
Webb led the charge offensively against Tonganoxie with six kills.
In the final round of pool play, EHS took care of Royal Valley in straight games, 25-19, 25-23, with Ashley Lake tallying six kills while Heinrichs had five.
Emporia went into the eight-team tournament play as the No. 1 seed, and in the first round met up with the host school, Rossville. The Lady Spartans swept the match by identical 25-19, 25-19 scores. Lake had eight kills and 20 digs in the sweep.
The Lady Spartans then would suffer their only loss of the weekend in the second round of tourney play, falling to Circle 25-22, 25-23.
“It was a dogfight all the way through,” Bloomquist said. “Every time they started to make a run, we’d stop them and make one of our own. We just couldn’t get a lead and keep it.”
The loss put EHS in the third-place match, where it faced Tonganoxie again.
“Like I said before the match, ‘If we beat them once already, we better beat them again,’” Bloomquist said.
The Lady Spartans did just that, taking a 2-1 victory (25-23, 18-25, 25-20) to earn the third-place finish, with Webb tallying nine kills to again lead EHS.
In all, Webb totaled 39 kills for the tournament, which earned her All-Tournament honors.
“We really hadn’t had any one girl step up and be our go-to hitter,” Bloomquist said, “but Sadie Webb showed she wants to be that this weekend.”
Bloomquist also gave special credit for her team’s performance to the play of the two setters, Cali Schelling and Van Gundy, who dished out 78 and 49 assists, respectively.
“They ran our offense really well, and they made our transition from defense to offense about as well as it could be done,” Bloomquist said. “Without them, we don’t do nearly as well.”