Kapaun, Carroll earn 5A volleyball berths
GODDARD — Top seeds Kapaun Mount Carmel and Bishop Carroll were designated home teams for Saturday's Class 5A sub-state finals at Goddard but found they were anything but that.
Both Goddard and Goddard Eisenhower also made the finals, and, buoyed by their fans, put up a fight before falling.
Kapaun (31-8) trailed Eisenhower (19-18) by as much as 7-3 before pulling even at 16-16 in the first game, battling for a 25-22 triumph. In the second game, Kapaun finally broke open a back-and-forth battle when Kate Madsen's kill gave it a 14-13 lead.
When Gabby Torline put away the final point, Kapaun could finally relax.
"I was a little nervous at first, but I knew we were going to get the point," Torline said. "They played amazing; they played really hard today."
Crusaders coach Terri Hessman said she expected a tough battle from Eisenhower.
"We've been watching a lot of film, and we knew they were a really tough team," Hessman said. "They have some really great servers and some really strong hitters, so we expected a tough match."
Eisenhower coach Dave Gardner said that the Tigers wanted to go out aggressively against Kapaun, more aggressively than they had in the past.
"We tried to keep them off-balance so they couldn't get good swings at us," Gardner said. "We had played them earlier in the year, and we knew what they had, so we knew what we were up against. When we keep our mistakes down, you can play with most people."
On the other court, Carroll (27-12) trailed Goddard 3-1 early on but rallied to tie the score at 4-4, then pulled ahead and kept Goddard (22-18) at arm's length to take the opening game, 25-20.
Carroll again jumped out to a big lead in the second game and had a 20-16 advantage before the Lions came back and pulled to within a point, 21-20. Carroll scored the next four points to close out the match.
Carroll coach Rita Mernagh said the battle with Goddard was a good warmup for state play.
"We knew they were a good team coming in, and they seem to play very much to the level of the team they're playing," she said. "We were very concerned about them."
Even though both Wichita schools received good support from their fans, the cheers seemed louder for the locals.
"They had a very good crowd here," Mernagh said. "That's always a worry coming here, because they do come out and support their teams well. They had great support out here, and that was one of our biggest concerns."
Goddard coach Tish Dimick said she enjoyed the crowd support for both the Lions and Tigers.
"It helps get the players going and knowing that they're getting cheered on."
At Goddard
Sub-State A
First round—Kapaun def. West, 25-8, 25-8; Eisenhower def. Liberal, 25-19, 25-22. Championship— Kapaun def. Eisenhower, 25-22, 25-22.
Sub-State B
First round—Carroll def. Arkansas City, 25-11, 25-13; Goddard def. Winfield, 25-11, 25-9. Championship— Carroll def. Goddard, 25-20, 25-21.
Note: Final records for other schools: West 0-33; Liberal 15-20; Arkansas City 3-33; Winfield 4-33.