Louisburg Volleyball Looks Forward to Substate After Rough Patch

The Louisburg Volleyball team have powered through the last two weeks, with the most important task being substate on the 24th.

Louisburg fell short against Paola High School, losing 1-3, then was on the opposite side of a loss against Pleasant Hill 0-3. While a rough week is hard to come back from, the Wildcats are ready to bounce right back. 

On Tuesday, the Wildcats faced the Panthers at Paola High School. The game went to 4 sets, losing the first, 15-25. Louisburg came back in the second set, winning 25-23. However, Louisburg fell in the last 2 sets losing 21-25 and 12-15. Even though Louisburg had a challenging week, learning to still improve as a team will set them apart from others. 

 “We haven’t played our best volleyball for an extended period of time yet, but that’s what we are striving for,” head coach Rich Brown said.

On Thursday, unfortunately, the Wildcats had a tough loss against Pleasant Hill, losing 0-3. Regardless of the loss, many players still had standout performances. One was Adelyn Moore, who reached 2500 career assists.

The team followed up Paola and Pleasant Hill by competing in two major events. Their first matchup was on October 6th at Tonganoxie, where the girls brought home a victory. On October 10th, the team traveled to Atchison High School for a six-school tournament. While they dropped tough matches against Shawnee Mission South and Perry-Lecompton, they bounced back to defeat both Blair Oaks and Atchison.

“We were able to get back in the win column with wins over Tongie, Blair Oaks MO and Atchison. It felt like we were syncing well as a team and I hope that continues in the next 2 weeks,” said Brown. “I think we need to be able to serve more aggressively and block the right side better.”

While the coaches are focused on fine tuning strategies, the players are locked in on maintaining this momentum, the aggression at the net and the intense work ethic carried directly into their next weeks of games and practice.

“The team rallied to beat Blair Oaks and Atchison by staying aggressive at the net and working hard every point,” said senior Adelyn Moore. “We are preparing for sub-state by really working on hitter and setter connections and taking every rep seriously and intentionally.”

“We all huddled together to talk about the plays that were good and that we should keep up, and then talked about what needs some improvement,” senior Aleix O’Dell said. “We also made sure to bring the team morale back up during the huddle and throughout the next games.”

As the Wildcats take on the court tonight against Ottawa and Wamego, they carry with them the lessons of last week’s tournament and a renewed sense of chemistry. With Sub-State just around the corner, every serve, lob, and huddle is a step toward postseason readiness. If last weeks’ games are any indication, this team is prepared to meet the challenges head-on.

– Will Leach