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PITTSBURG —
It was another strong year for high school volleyball in Crawford County.
Five of the six teams enjoyed winning records — Frontenac 35-7, Southeast 34-8, Girard 24-13, Pittsburg 24-16 and Colgan 22-15. A young Northeast team under first-year head coach Liz Wood finished its season 6-27.
Five of the six advanced to substate semifinals, three to substate finals and two qualified for state tournaments — Frontenac made its first Class 4A appearance and Southeast made its third consecutive 3A appearance. Pittsburg lost in a highly competitive three-set substate final to Frontenac and both Colgan and Girard lost in the semis, Girard to Pittsburg in the third three-set match between the county schools.
Both Frontenac and Southeast lost their final matches of the season to eventual state champions — Frontenac to McPherson and Southeast to Hillsboro, a repeat state champion.
2012 MORNING SUN ALL-COUNTY TEAM
Lindsey Gorham, Frontenac
A four-year varsity starter, Gorham saved her best for her senior year: a county-high 921 assists, 308 digs, 27 aces, 11 kills and 15 blocks.
Gorham averaged 10.1 assists per set, taking full advantage of the Frontenac offensive arsenal — Ryleigh McCartney, Paige Badart, Lauren Hipfl and Bailey Flora among Gorham’s passing options.
“Lindsey has had her best season this year,” Frontenac head coach Cassie Buche said in a state tournament precede. “She’s opened a lot of eyes. She’s been that core for our team.
Being the setter, she’s offensively in on every play and her stats, they’re just amazing. I look at them week-to-week and it’s just amazing how many attempts she’s had and how many errors she’s not had. As long as Lindsey does well, we’re doing well.”
Her season-high 41 assists came in the 4A substate final win over Pittsburg on the Purple Dragons’ home floor. She had 37 assists against Southeast and Girard, 32 against Southeast, and 30 against Girard and Uniontown, her best performances coming in big matches.
Gorham reached double figures 41 times and 20 assists 26 times her senior year. She finished her career with 2,682 assists. Her previous season high in assists was 623 her sophomore year.
Ryleigh McCartney, Frontenac
McCartney developed into one of the best all-around volleyball players in the area, capable of affecting the game on the front or the back row.
She led Frontenac with 354 kills and 103 blocks, ranked second with 397 digs and third with 34 aces.
“Ryleigh’s stepped into that role,” Buche said. “Offensively, she leads our team in kills, leads our team in blocks and I think she leads our team in probably every offensive category that we have. Defensively, she plays that middle block position for us on the back row and she continues to improve in that position. That’s a tough position for anybody to play, let alone somebody who’s playing middle front on the front row. By the end of the day, she’s probably exhausted but you’d never know it with Ryleigh. She’s been a huge reason for our success.”
It was another strong year for high school volleyball in Crawford County.
Five of the six teams enjoyed winning records — Frontenac 35-7, Southeast 34-8, Girard 24-13, Pittsburg 24-16 and Colgan 22-15. A young Northeast team under first-year head coach Liz Wood finished its season 6-27.
Five of the six advanced to substate semifinals, three to substate finals and two qualified for state tournaments — Frontenac made its first Class 4A appearance and Southeast made its third consecutive 3A appearance. Pittsburg lost in a highly competitive three-set substate final to Frontenac and both Colgan and Girard lost in the semis, Girard to Pittsburg in the third three-set match between the county schools.
Both Frontenac and Southeast lost their final matches of the season to eventual state champions — Frontenac to McPherson and Southeast to Hillsboro, a repeat state champion.
2012 MORNING SUN ALL-COUNTY TEAM
Lindsey Gorham, Frontenac
A four-year varsity starter, Gorham saved her best for her senior year: a county-high 921 assists, 308 digs, 27 aces, 11 kills and 15 blocks.
Gorham averaged 10.1 assists per set, taking full advantage of the Frontenac offensive arsenal — Ryleigh McCartney, Paige Badart, Lauren Hipfl and Bailey Flora among Gorham’s passing options.
“Lindsey has had her best season this year,” Frontenac head coach Cassie Buche said in a state tournament precede. “She’s opened a lot of eyes. She’s been that core for our team.
Being the setter, she’s offensively in on every play and her stats, they’re just amazing. I look at them week-to-week and it’s just amazing how many attempts she’s had and how many errors she’s not had. As long as Lindsey does well, we’re doing well.”
Her season-high 41 assists came in the 4A substate final win over Pittsburg on the Purple Dragons’ home floor. She had 37 assists against Southeast and Girard, 32 against Southeast, and 30 against Girard and Uniontown, her best performances coming in big matches.
Gorham reached double figures 41 times and 20 assists 26 times her senior year. She finished her career with 2,682 assists. Her previous season high in assists was 623 her sophomore year.
Ryleigh McCartney, Frontenac
McCartney developed into one of the best all-around volleyball players in the area, capable of affecting the game on the front or the back row.
She led Frontenac with 354 kills and 103 blocks, ranked second with 397 digs and third with 34 aces.
“Ryleigh’s stepped into that role,” Buche said. “Offensively, she leads our team in kills, leads our team in blocks and I think she leads our team in probably every offensive category that we have. Defensively, she plays that middle block position for us on the back row and she continues to improve in that position. That’s a tough position for anybody to play, let alone somebody who’s playing middle front on the front row. By the end of the day, she’s probably exhausted but you’d never know it with Ryleigh. She’s been a huge reason for our success.”
Her season highs: 16 kills against Southeast and Girard, 20 digs against Southern Coffey County, four aces against Erie, seven blocks against Erie, Girard and Yates Center, and 19 serves received against Southeast.
Amy Martin, Southeast
Playing on her third consecutive substate champion and state tournament squad, Martin stepped more into a leadership role her junior season, assuming some of the same responsibilities Chaney Fox and Bridget McGuire had during previous seasons.
Seemingly a natural-born leader, Martin also started at point guard in basketball and catcher in softball last year.
In addition to her fiery competitive spirit, Martin did a little bit of everything for the Lancers on the court: team-high 255 kills, team-high 243 digs, team-high 348 serves received and second-best 56 aces.
In the state tournament, Martin had 16 kills, 19 digs and three digs. She helped Southeast win its first set during its three state appearances.
The last three state-qualifying teams have combined for a 98-30 overall record and 18-4 mark in the Crawford-Neosho-Cherokee League. That’s a .770 winning percentage overall and .820 in official CNC matches.
Olivia Powell, Southeast
The lone first-time All-County selection, Powell led the Lancers with 89 aces, 33 more than the next-highest Southeast player. Powell served 67 aces her freshman year, with her most dangerous weapon the jump serve.
Powell finished second on Southeast with 225 kills, second in digs with 192 and second in serves received with 340.
She had a season-high 11 aces against Neodesha.
Andie Casper, Pittsburg
A two-time All-County selection, Casper was one of seven PHS seniors (Casper, Lizzy Willis, Alaura Short, Rheid Tridle, Jordan Dee, Brianna Maxwell and Alycia Pollard) who helped Pittsburg finish 24-16 overall and 5-1 in the Southeast Kansas League.
During a season-opening quadrangular sweep, Casper had a team-high 19 kills (nine against Girard), 20 service points and three aces. She had a team-high 15 kills against state-ranked Chanute and Paola during a tough home triangular. On Senior Night, Casper had seven kills during an especially-balanced Dragon attack against Iola and Independence. Casper had 12 kills, 10 service points and one ace in her final high school match against Frontenac.
“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 of her senior class. “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 over 90 percent attendance for all those girls for four summers. It’s made a huge difference.”
Pittsburg finished second in the SEK and substate runner-up.
Hayden Bauer, Girard
A versatile player for the Trojans, Bauer enjoyed matches like eight kills, three aces and one dig against Galena, six kills and seven digs against Southeast, six kills and four aces against Pittsburg, 10 kills against Fort Scott, and five kills against Columbus. Bauer proved effective on both the front and back rows.
After Girard pushed Frontenac to three close sets during a memorable CNC triangular match at the St. Mary’s Colgan Fieldhouse, Frontenac head coach Cassie Buche mentioned that Bauer and her younger sister, Audrey, both gave the Raiders fits.
Bauer, along with fellow seniors Anissa Zagonel and Lauren Davied, closed out their high school careers with a 24-13 overall record and 5-3 mark in the CNC under first-year Girard head coach Emily Vosseler.
