Setting the Tone: Louisburg Volleyball Lays Down the Groundwork for the Season Ahead

Louisburg volleyball is looking to build off of last year’s season.

They will rely on a strong core of seniors to get the job done.

The Louisburg high school volleyball team won their first two games of the season, with a 3-1 victory over Baldwin on Tuesday, and a 3-0 performance against Sante Fe Trail on Thursday. The team is led by head coach Rich Brown and assistant coaches Kelly Ratliff and Andrew Cornelius

It’s been a long summer of hard work, as the team has been practicing for two straight months building towards the start of the 2026 season. “The volleyball team has done weight lifting three mornings a week, opens gym two days a week, summer league with three different teams, two matches a week for six weeks, team camp at Wichita State for one week, and a team camp here at Louisburg for one week,” said Brown.

In the 25-26 season, the Wildcats was the No. 8 seed and won in the semifinals before losing to Bishop Miege in the sub-state championship match. “Last year’s swan song, we were probably a lot heavy on going outside all the time with our sets whenever we were in a challenging situation,” said Brown. “This year, it feels like we’ve got 4 or 5 good options no matter what our rotation is, so I think overall our ability to hit as a group has improved greatly.”

The team this year is set with a number of five seniors, four juniors, seven sophomores and ten freshmen, to make a total of twenty-three players with three managers. “We have a really strong group of senior leaders and they have a good chemistry with each other, ” said Brown. “They are very responsible there, very determined to make sure the team remains active and participates subsequently.”

Motivated by the ending of last year’s seniors, the Wildcats enter the beginning of this up and coming season with a mission. “We need to beat two teams to improve what we did last year. We need to beat Eudora, in order to get a chance to win league and we probably need to beat Miege to get to state, but we won’t know what that stealing is until about two weeks before.” Brown said.

The team is hoping to continue its hot start, with matches against Piper and Ottawa. They will also compete in the Frontenac tournament on the 12th.

– Will Leach