Pairings set for volleyball; Raiders, Lancers at No. 1

The Kansas State High School Activities Association released its pairings for substate Saturday and two Crawford County schools earned top seeds.

Frontenac (32-4) earned No. 1 seed in a Class 4A substate hosted by Pittsburg. The Raiders, on a 19-match winning streak, make their 4A debut against No. 8 seed and new Crawford-Neosho-Cherokee League member Columbus (8-26) Saturday at 2 p.m.

The Raiders won their last six CNC League matches after losing their first two on their home floor to Erie and Southeast. Frontenac lost in the championship match of the Erie Tournament to 4A powerhouse Chanute and since then, it’s been win after win for the Raiders.

“We’re doing a lot of great things right now,” Frontenac head coach Cassie Buche said after the Raiders swept Columbus, St. Paul and Southeast. “The biggest thing for us is our consistency. The skills and the fundamentals are there and the teamwork is definitely there between the girls.”

Ryleigh McCartney, a three-year starter, has turned into one of the best all-around players in the area her junior season. She has 307 kills, 358 digs, 98 blocks and 30 aces. She leads the Raiders in kills and blocks, and ranks second in digs behind libero Nayna Fields (401).

Senior setter Lindsey Gorham, a four-year starter, leads Frontenac with 798 assists and her career-best season-high total gives her 2,559 assists for her distinguished career in a Frontenac uniform. Gorham played on the last Frontenac volleyball team to qualify for state — the 20-17 squad of 2009, her freshman year.

Frontenac seniors include Gorham, Fields, Paige Badart, Libby Warrick, Jennifer Long and McKayla Edwards.

Girard (23-12) and Pittsburg (22-15) are No. 2 and No. 3 seeds, respectively.

Older sister Hayden (senior) and younger sister Audrey (junior) have been consistently tough players on the Girard frontline.

The host Purple Dragons finished second in the Southeast Kansas League (its one loss to Chanute) and their schedule includes tournament play against larger 5A and 6A schools like Shawnee Mission Northwest, Maize, Washburn Rural, Topeka Seaman, Junction City and Lawrence.

Pittsburg features seniors Andie Casper, Lizzy Willis, Rheid Tridle, Alaura Short, Brianna Maxwell, Jordan Dee and Alycia Pollard, a strong nucleus.

“This group of seven has been very diligent about coming in to weights and coming in to summer conditioning to make themselves better,” Pittsburg head coach Mary Packard said after a Senior Night sweep of Iola and Independence. “It shows on the court. their verticals, their power, their time they’ve spent in the gym. They were the first group who bought in. We’ve had weights in the past and it was just kind of hit-and-miss and people didn’t buy into it as much as they should have. . . . We’re talking about 90 percent attendance for all those girls for four summers. It’s made a huge difference.”

In past years, playing in 5A, Pittsburg would venture to suburban Kansas City for substate and last year, playing in 4A, Pittsburg lost to Chanute on Chanute’s home floor. Now, Pittsburg gets a shot at state on its home floor.

Frontenac and Girard played each other twice; Frontenac won both matches in three sets (24-26, 25-18, 25-14 and 23-25, 25-20, 25-20).

Pittsburg and Girard played twice; Pittsburg won both matches in three sets (13-25, 25-22, 25-17 and 17-25, 25-20, 26-24).

A pattern emerges during Girard’s four matches against Pittsburg and Frontenac: Girard wins the first set and loses in three sets.

The Southeast Lancers, back-to-back 3A state qualifiers, earned a No. 1 seed in the Caney Valley substate with their 29-5 record.

Amy Martin, a junior, and Olivia Powell, a sophomore, lead or rank high in several individual statistical categories: Martin 213 kills (team-high), 45 aces (third), 22 blocks (fourth), 199 digs (team-high) and 280 serves received (team-high), Powell 182 kills (second), 73 aces (team-high), 20 blocks (fifth),  155 digs (second) and 264 serves received (second).

Senior setter Tori Colvin does a little bit of everything as well for the Lancers: 327 assists (team-high), 92 digs, 78 kills, 40 aces and eight blocks.

The Lancers have won eight straight matches since a Senior Night heartbreaker to Frontenac.

“No one wants to lose, especially on Senior Night,” Martin said. “Your seniors don’t want to end their last game on their home floor with a loss. We still won two games, which is good . . . glad we came out with a positive note. It’s not the end of the season. Seniors still have days to work in practice, work hard and we’re going to come out at substate and carry it on to state. This is not our last . . . we’re going to build from it and learn from it.”

Southeast won both substates not as the No. 1 seed the last two years. The Lancers open Saturday afternoon with Riverton (3-30).

Colgan (21-14) earned a No. 3 seed and face the Bluestreaks of Neodesha (11-22) in their first match Saturday.

The Panthers have sophomores Katie Kolarik, Cori Koehn, Aliee Story and Alex Minton, as well as juniors Sydney Beck and Kelly Smith, complement seniors Katelyn Flood, Mariah Klenke, Abbie O’Brien and Kathryn Smith. The Panthers have won six of their last eight matches, finishing second place to Jayhawk-Linn at their home invitational and splitting a league triangular with Columbus and Southeast on Senior Night.

“We are a fairly young team and I think we’ve improved skillwise but we’re also starting to get along with each other better,” Colgan head coach Cathy Oplotnik said. “We’re starting to understand each other’s roles.”

The Northeast Vikings (6-26) have a difficult first match against No. 1 seed Uniontown (26-9) on the Eagles’ home court.

Northeast features a young roster with only two seniors, Laci Scholes and Laila Schlee.