Volleyball wins sub-state tournament

By defeating Shawnee Mission East and Blue Valley West, the volleyball team became sub-state champions and are headed to the state tournament.

Laney Breidenthal, Writer

After beating Shawnee Mission East in two sets and Blue Valley West in three sets at sub-state at BVW, the volleyball team is going to the state tournament.

In the first set against SME, BVNW won 25-8, and then won the second set 25-6, which won the game.

“That wasn’t necessarily a hard game for us, and we already knew that if we worked really hard, we were going to have that game,” junior Adeline Ellis said. “It was nice to not have to play a really really hard team. We don’t normally play as well towards the beginning, but today we definitely did.”

In the second game, BVNW beat BVW 25-22 in the first set. In the second set, BVNW lost 22-25, sending the game to a third set to determine the winner. In the third set, BVNW beat BVW 25-20, winning the game and advancing to state.

“I’m pretty excited about the outcome,” head coach Molly Haggerty said. “The competition was way up there and we were able to match their intensity and follow the game plan. They did a really great job against those girls.”

Senior Sydney Walls was elated with the team’s performance.

“I think the team did fantastically given the amount of pressure we were under,” Walls said. “We haven’t done this good since 2001 and it has been just a blissful dream.”

Ellis said she thinks the team did awesome and that she does not think they have ever played so well.

“We definitely came out to play today,” Ellis said. “For the seniors, it was their last chance and we fought for them a lot; we never gave up. Northwest hasn’t been [to state] in a really long time and just the fact that we could do it this year when we have such a talented group was awesome. We definitely earned what we got.”

The state volleyball tournament will take place Nov. 1-2 at the Topeka Expocentre.