Volleyball’s Hot Streak Goes through Substate, Falls to Paola
- Updated: October 27, 2026
The Louisburg volleyball team ended the year on fire, but unfortunately had their season end at Paola on Saturday.
Volleyball was playing some of their best games as a team to end the season, as they ended the year on a roll with four wins in a row against Wamego, Ottawa, and two against Baldwin. Their sights were set on a great showing at sub-state this weekend.
“I feel like we played pretty well these last couple of dates,” head coach Rich Brown. “The fact that we have been so active against a variety of programs has helped us adjust on the fly.”
Brown was extremely complimentary of many players instrumental to their success. “Also getting production from our right side players, Mia Norton, Kyia Feldkamp and Grace Burch,” Brown said, “has been a welcome addition to our defense.”
“Breck (Nielsen) and Reagan Varns have had a good week,” Brown said. “The number of hitting errors for those two are down.”
Louisburg began their run at home in a triangular with Wamego and Ottawa, where they saw added two wins to their record. Then, the girls traveled to Santa Fe Trail to compete in another triangular where they played Baldwin twice. Both matches ended in a 2-0 win for the Wildcats. Set one of the first game was 25-18, and the second set was 25-23. In their second game of the night the first set ended 25-18 again with the second set ending 25-16.
After just hitting 2,500 career assists a few weeks ago, Brown noted the accomplished season of Adelyn Moore. “Moore is just 15 assists away from joining the 3000 career assists club,” Brown said, “and that is something very special.” Moore would achieve this feat at substate, where only a handful of high school volleyball players have achieved 3000 assists.
The volleyball team has shown improvement in the last two weeks and looks forward to carrying that into sub-state. “I’m a big believer in trying to teach and learn every practice, no matter what time of the season it is,” Brown said. “ I know some teams go into tapering work and just trying to stay crisp on the things they do well, but I haven’t had much success at that and want every practice to stretch the kids in some way, either mentally or physically or both.”
In a tough 4A sub-state bracket, the Wildcats have to keep making improvements with practice. When asked about the emphasis this week, Brown aimed to emphasize situations the most. “Looking at strengths and weaknesses of the teams we could face this weekend is what the coaches are spending time on before we get in the gym,” Brown said. “If we do our work properly, then we have drills and situational scrimmages so we see in practice what we are likely to see in the game. We have experience playing all three teams in our substate, so the drills we create will look familiar to the girls as they get ready for Saturday.”
The girls then traveled to Paola for substate. Their first game came against Fort Scott, where the girls would get to hot starts, winning in two sets, 25-10 and 25-12. They played Paola next, one of the best teams in 4A. They battled in both games, but lost in both sets, 25-19 and 25-14.
It was a great season for our ladies, especially our seniors Adelyn Moore, Breck Nielsen, Alexi O’Dell, Briar Vohs, and Regan Williams.
– Bo Ballard
