As the ball soared through the air, Blue Valley Northwest senior Scout Watson got into position and prepared herself. As Olathe Northwest senior Maddie Schnider leaped into the air to slam the ball over the net, Watson rose up to meet her, effectively diverting the ball from it’s set course. After two sets of continuous battle for the lead, BVNW claimed victory in the semifinal game of the state volleyball tournament. With the win, the Huskies advance to the championship game against Olathe East.

“This is unreal,” Watson said after the match. “It’s crazy. We started from nothing last year, and now we are in the championship.”

Watson attributes the Huskies’ success to a strong start and continuous effort. BVNW kept racking up points, and the defense stayed solid throughout the match.

“We kept swing,” Watson said. “They had a hard time sticking with us, and our defense was solid the entire time. Going into the next game though, we need to switch up the hitters and be more unpredictable. We have to have more strategy so they won’t be able to see it coming.”

After a few initial back and forth points at the beginning of the first set, the Huskies went on a 5-0 run that resulted in ONW calling a time out to try and regain control. While the Ravens came out stronger after the time out, they were unable to gain a lead and the Huskies took the first set, 25-20.

“I like the beginning parts of the games where we were in it,” ONW head coach Barry Lenth said. “The hustle from both teams was what made it fun. Even though we were down, we didn’t stop hustling.”

The Ravens started off the second set in the lead, but lost it quickly as the Huskies went on a 6-0 run. Lenth called another time out to calm his team, and the result was an unceasing fight to regain control of the game. Despite what Lenth called a tremendous effort, the Ravens dropped the second set with a score of 25-16.

Lenth said having a young team hurt the Ravens as they faced a seasoned Husky squad. The team was inexperienced playing in such mentally trying games, and going forward Lenth hopes they will learn from the loss.

“These were two really good teams,” Lenth said. “I thought that BVNW is well coached, and that they have a lot of good athletes. They did a great job of staying in system when we served so they were able to run their offense. We struggled passing, and they did a great job serving so they got us out of it. That’s ultimately what it comes down to, is whoever stays in their system and their offense is going to have a better chance of winning. And that’s credit to them, they were able to do it.”

BVNW senior Joanne Maloney said the Huskies played very well, and that their blocking and hitting proved to be more effective today.

“If you told me, even two weeks ago, that we would be here, I would’ve told ou that you were crazy,” Maloney said. “I’m so excited. This is just surreal. I was sitting on the bench in awe.”

Haggerty attributes the success to how flexible her team proved to be, and how each member stepped up and made big plays when they needed to.

“Once I started counting down again, ‘We got five points left, just find five points, find four points, find three points,’” Haggerty said. “It just started kicking in and it was really exciting. I kept telling the girls to stop and keep looking at each other and to smile and enjoy the moment because we don’t get to do this every year.

“Obviously the next game, Olathe East has to very physical and active setters,” Haggerty said. “We need to be more aware of the setters, they have fairly decent size so our hitters need to make more shots on the floor.”