Emporia High’s volleyball team ended its regular season on Tuesday night in Lawrence with a pair of losses.
The Spartans lost their first match to Lawrence High 17-25, 31-33. A call that coach Ashley Nehls and the Spartans thought was incorrect prevented EHS from taking a victory in the second set.
With Emporia up 28-27, officials called for a replay on a Lawrence attack that the Spartans thought was out. If it had been called out, Emporia would have won the set; instead, the Lions got an ace on the replay to tie the game, then went on to win.
“Honestly, they played the best I’ve seen ’em play,” Nehls said. “We’ve been working really hard on defense. Geez, it’s frustrating. This week, we’ve gotten a lot better, and I told the girls tonight, ‘That’s OK. This is a good time to get better.’”
Blue Valley North had little trouble with the Spartans in Emporia’s second game, beating EHS 25-14, 25-12.
“I think our girls were a little bummed out about that first game,” Nehls said. “Especially going to 33 points — that’s quite a lot extra to play. And I think they expected to kind of win that second (set against Lawrence). We played pretty well, actually, against Blue Valley North.”
Olathe East, also scheduled to compete Tuesday, didn’t make the trip.
Lauren Longbine led EHS with 12 kills over the two matches, Sarah Kolmer had 10 and Lindy Arndt had eight. Andrea Markowitz had 23 digs, and Arndt and Kolmer both had 13. Megan McRell had 29 assists. Longbine and Gladys Azzun each contributed six assist blocks.
Emporia is now 16-21 on the year. Today, the Spartans will officially learn their draw for this weekend’s substate action in McPherson. Along with McPherson High, Emporia’s substate group includes Great Bend, Hays, Hutchinson, Newton, Salina Central and Salina South.
Nehls believes her team is capable of making a run through substate.
“Definitely, especially after just seeing how much we’ve improved in the last week,” she said. “Our communication is so much better, our ballhandling is just getting better, which is where we’ve struggled. So it’s looking better for us. I’m excited to see how the girls perform at substate.”