The trend the Emporia High volleyball team has established all year long is that the Spartans start slow, then improve as their outing wears on. That trend continued when the Spartans hosted a tough quad on Tuesday.
Emporia dropped its first match to Manhattan in two sets, then rebounded to take one set in a loss to Washburn Rural, before closing with an easy victory over an overmatched Highland Park team. The 1-2 showing in its second home appearance of the year dropped the Spartans’ overall record to 12-14.
But that 25-21 first-set win over Rural, the defending three-time Class 6A State champions, had the Spartans excited. Even though Rural isn’t the team it was over the past three years, and though the Spartans dropped the next two sets to the Junior Blues, 25-16 and 25-14, taking a set felt like a major accomplishment.
“I think that helped ’em get their confidence back a little bit there, too,” Emporia coach Ashley Nehls said. “I mean, we really looked like two totally different teams coming into that game. I know they were pretty excited to play them again. We talked a lot about getting along on the court and making sure we were having fun while we’re playing. And that helps our team — that gives us more momentum.”
The deciding third set against Rural was a close one up until about halfway through, with an errant serve by Rural’s Dani Musselman bringing the Spartans to within 12-11. Rural scored four unanswered points until a Lauren Longbine kill got the Spartans back to within 16-12. They trailed 17-12 when Longbine knocked one over the net and thought she had a kill. She and some other Spartans briefly celebrated before quickly realizing Rural had kept the ball alive, and a long volley ensued, with Lindy Arndt spiking the ball into the net to give Rural a point. After an Emporia timeout, the Blues ripped off four more straight points to go up 22-12, and by the time a Sarah Kolmer kill stopped the Rural run at 6-0, it was too late.
“It’s kind of like the Lansing game (last weekend), where we saw that if we play to our level, then we can be the best team that we want to be,” Longbine said. “We can beat anybody, and we did that again against Washburn Rural. So I mean really, we needed to remember what it feels like to play like that, and keep playing like that all the time.”
The Spartans started slowly against Highland Park, falling behind 8-4. But a Courtney Waldner kill got the Spartans started on a decisive 9-0 run, and her unreturned tap over the net gave Emporia its first lead of the set at 9-8. Once it fell behind 13-8, Highland Park didn’t get closer than three, as EHS scored 10 of the final 12 points to take a 25-14 victory. The Spartans had an even easier time in the second set, never trailing on their way to a 25-12 win.
That was a good way for EHS to end the night after the 25-15, 25-10 loss to Manhattan to kick off the quad.
“Definitely disappointed in the way that we played overall against Manhattan,” Nehls said. “They didn’t play that bad, but it was a lot of mental problems. They weren’t getting along on the court, they were afraid to make mistakes, little things like that that got in our head.”
Longbine led Emporia with 16 kills over the three matches. Arndt had 15, and Kolmer put down 13.
“We definitely had our weak points, but we had some really strong points, too,” setter Megan McRell said. “We need to learn to emphasize on those strong points and just go with the momentum.”
The Spartans will be on the road Thursday when they travel to Shawnee Mission Northwest for a quad that also includes Olathe North and Olathe Northwest.