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No. 6-ranked Washburn Rural volleyball outlasts Shawnee Heights in three-set thriller
By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Both Washburn Rural volleyball coach Kevin Bordewick and Shawnee Heights coach Sami Kearney know that their teams still have plenty to work on as they get deeper into the 2025 season.
But both Bordewick and Kearney also had plenty to feel good about after Thursday's triangular at Shawnee Heights.
Senior Karsyn Horyna (21) celebrates the final point in Washburn Rural's three-set win over Shawnee Heights Thursday night. [Photo by Rick Peterson/TSN]
For Bordewick, the biggest positive was that his No. 6-ranked Junior Blues were able to come through when it counted the most to cap a 2-0 night with a hard-earned three-set 25-14, 19-25, 25-23 victory over Shawnee Heights in the final match of the night.
"Shawnee Heights is a good team,'' said Bordewick, whose team is now 11-4 on the season. "They've played some tough competetion and they've scored some points on some of the top teams in the state in 5A and 6A. I knew that for years, forever, they have been feisty and scrappy and that's exactly what they have right there.
"Not taking anything away from Shawnee Heights at all, I think we can play better, but the good news is we fought through adversity and we found a way to win.''
And although she was disappointed that her T-Birds came up just short against Rural, Kearney was thrilled with the way her team battled throughout the night en route to a 1-1 split against Class 6A foes Blue Valley Northwest and Rural, with Heights taking a 27-25, 25-21 win over the Huskies to avenge a recent loss before taking the Junior Blues down to the wire after rebounding from an 11-point first-set loss.
"Other nights we might have just stopped playing and we didn't stop playing,'' said Kearney, whose T-Birds are 12-13. "I was very proud. This is probably one of the better games I've seen and felt with my team and that was a good time to turn it on. If not for a couple of mistakes here and there we would have had it.
"Rural's a great team, I will always admire them. They work hard, they're fast and quick, but I was happy to see that we can get up to the competition and we played really well tonight. I don't like losing, but I'm happy with how we played.''
Ichabod volleyball bounces back from first loss with road sweep at Pittsburg State
By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
No. 10-ranked Washburn Ichabod volleyball bounced back from its first loss of the season to post a three-set MIAA road sweep over Pittsburg State on Thursday.
Senior Austin Broadie led Washburn with 13 kills in Thursday's 3-0 MIAA road sweep at Pittsburg State. [File photo/TSN]
Junior Taylor Rottinghaus registered 14 digs in Thursday's 3-0 MIAA Washburn road sweep at Pittsburg State. [File photo/TSN]
The Ichabods will stay on the road facing Newman at 6 p.m. on Friday in Wichita.
In all three sets Washburn (13-1 overall, 2-1 MIAA) hit over .300 as a team, beginning with a commanding 25-12 first-set win followed by 25-17 and 25-19 victories over the Gorillas (7-6, 1-2).
After Pittsburg State went up 4-1 to open the match, the Ichabods responded with a 7-1 run started by a kill from Bella Limback. The score stayed within four until nine straight points for Washburn, beginning with Corinna McMullen setting up Austin Broadie for a kill. The offense hit .379 as a team while holding the Gorillas to a below zero hitting percentage to take the set by 13 points.
In the second set Washburn jumped out to a 3-0 lead with an ace from McMullen beginning the set. The lead continued to grow slowly until the Ichabods broke the set open with five straight points, capped off by two straight kills by Emery Keebaugh to make it 17-8. After a kill by Broadie made it set point at 24-13, Pittsburg State scored four more until Broadie slashed another kill to end the second set.
Silver Lake No. 1 in KVA Class 3A state volleyball rankings for fourth straight week
By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Four Shawnee County schools continue to earn Top 10 spots in the Kansas Volleyball Association's state rankings released Wednesday, led by Class 3A Silver Lake, which is ranked No. 1 for the fourth straight week.
Silver Lake volleyball is ranked No. 1 in the KVA Class 3A state rankings for the fourth straight week. [File photo/TSN]
Silver Lake was 22-1 at the time of the rankngs, with the Eagles' lone loss coming against 5A Shawnee Heights.
Hayden (14-5) is ranked No. 3 in 4A while Rossville (14-6) is ranked fifth in 2A while Washburn Rural (9-4) is No. 6-ranked in 6A.
Kansas Volleyball Association State Rankings
