Lady Cats finish fourth at Class 4A state tournament

Louisburg’s Alyse Moore and Reilly Ratliff-Becher celebrate a big point Friday during the Class 4A state tournament in Hutchinson.

HUTCHINSON – The Louisburg
volleyball team lost its final two matches of the season, but those setbacks
didn’t take away from what the Lady Cats accomplished last weekend during the
Kansas Class 4A State Championships.

For the third straight season, the
Lady Cats were among the last four teams playing and brought home a little hardware
for their efforts. Louisburg took fourth overall after losing its third place
match to Towanda-Circle, 2-1, on Saturday at Hutchinson Sports Arena.

“Every season our goal is to put ourselves
in the best position to qualify for state and then to hopefully advance to
bracket play on Saturday,” Louisburg coach Jessica Compliment said. “Leading up
to state, we talked about how nothing is guaranteed and in order to make it to
bracket play on Saturday, we have to show up and play our best from the first
whistle to the last whistle. If we play our game, then hopefully the winning
will take care of itself and we’d advance.

“The eight teams at state this year were
all very talented. I was happy that we qualified for the semifinals because
that put us one step closer to the championship. Even though we didn’t reach
the championship match and finished fourth, I was still very proud of how the
team played throughout the tournament.”

It appeared Louisburg was going to bring
home a third-place trophy as it jumped out to an early lead against Circle. The
Lady Cats took the first set 25-19, and despite falling 21-25 in the second,
they held a 20-13 lead in the third.

Circle battled back to tie the match at 23-all, but junior Alyse Moore registered a kill to give Louisburg match point. Instead, Circle won the last three points and took third place from Louisburg.

Moore and senior Haley Cain led Louisburg
with eight kills each, while junior Carleigh Pritchard had six. Louisburg also
served well as it recorded 13 aces in the match, including five from sophomore
Rinny McMullen.

McMullen also shined defensively as she
had a team-high 15 digs to go along with 18 assists. The Louisburg setter went
on to be named to the All-Tournament Team.

Pritchard led the Lady Cat defense at the
net with four blocks, while senior Riley Kallevig and sophomore Chase Kallevig
each had nine digs in the loss.

“We made some errors at the end of the
third set that allowed Circle to gain some momentum and win,” Compliment said. “It
does go to show that you can’t take any rally or play off because a good team
will capitalize on those mistakes or ‘off’ rallies.

“I was still proud of how we finished our
season. Placing fourth at state is still a great accomplishment. We talked as a
team afterwards about the tradition of Louisburg volleyball and how they helped
to create another great season. These players are great role models and have
shown once again what can be accomplished with hard work and teamwork.”

On Friday, the Lady Cats were forced to
battle their way through pool play. Louisburg opened with a 25-10 and 25-19
loss to No. 1 seed Andale.

The Lady Cats were able to keep their hopes of a state title alive with a 26-24, 23-25 and 25-20 win over Holton to even their record at 1-1 in pool play.

Seniors Liz Jacobs and Riley Kallevig led
the way for the Lady Cats offensively as they had 13 and 11 kills,
respectively, while Moore was third on the team with six. Sophomore setter
Davis Guetterman ran the offense with a team-high 22 assists and McMullen had
13.

Defensively, Riley Kallevig led Louisburg
with 16 digs, while senior Reilly Ratliff-Becher had 12 and Chase Kallevig
finished with 11.

Louisburg (23-18) faced an even tougher
test against No. 5 Nickerson as it lost the first set 19-25, but rallied to
take the next two, 25-10 and 25-20, to earn a spot in the state semifinals.

Riley Kallevig had eight kills to pace
the Lady Cat offense, while senior Erin Lemke, Cain and Moore each finished
with five. McMullen and Chase Kallevig added four and two aces, respectively.

Ratliff-Becher had a big match in the
back row for Louisburg as the senior libero led the way with 12 digs, while
Riley Kallevig added seven.

“There were many times they could have
given up on Friday during the Holton and Nickerson matches,” Compliment said. “Instead,
they fought through and pulled out two wins to end pool play 2-1 and lock in
our place in the semifinals. Every team we played at the state
tournament showed up to play, which is the way it should be. We had some
difficult times on Friday, but the team persevered.”

That set up a match with Topeka-Hayden in the semifinals on Saturday, and the Lady Cats couldn’t get into a rhythm in their 25-14 and 25-18 loss to the eventual state champion.

The tournament also marked the end of the
high school volleyball careers of six seniors as Haley Cain, Liz Jacobs, Riley
Kallevig, Sydni Keagle, Erin Lemke and Reilly Ratliff-Becher all played their
final match for the Lady Cats.

“These players are great role models and
have shown once again what can be accomplished with hard work and teamwork,”
Compliment said. “The seniors have been a part of three state appearances and
three finishes in the top four. That is pretty cool. 

“The seniors, and the rest of the players, weren’t ready for the
season to be over. The season was a bit of a roller coaster, but I think they
learned a lot throughout the season and grew as a team. These six seniors will
be missed. They have been great role models over the past four years and I’m
excited to see what their futures outside of Louisburg High School has in store
for them.”