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Tiger volleyball adjusts to new offense
With injuries to two starters, Abby Humble and Hunter Adamson, Fort Scott High School volleyball head coach Jenna Campbell has had to make adjustments to her team in a short period of time and get them implemented quickly.
The work in progress had only one practice to implement the changes but the Tigers managed a split in a Thursday-night home triangular with Girard and state-ranked Louisburg. The Wildcats, ranked No. 2 in Class 4A by the Kansas Volleyball Coaches Association, swept Fort Scott, 25-14, 25-14, and Girard, 25-1, 25-11. But in the final match of the night, the Tigers showed some fortitude in holding off Girard, 25-23, 25-22.
Although Louisburg, led by senior Anna Dixon — whose mother and aunt played Division I volleyball — made easy work of the night, Campbell still saw positives from her team, which was using a two-setter offense (a 6-2) for the first time.
“We displayed some very good things against Louisburg,” Campbell said. “They, obviously, are a very good team. But I thought, aside from a couple of mental errors we had in the game, we competed pretty tough with them.”
With Humble out with a knee injury, the Tigers’ setter, out, Montana LaRoche was moved to that position and adjusted fairly well. But when Adamson went down with an injured leg, LaRoche’s hitting ability was also needed. Now when LaRoche is in the front row, Emma Martin becomes the setter.
“We’ve had to make a lot of adjustments,” Campbell said. “We’ve had to go from one setter to two setters and we made that adjustment last night, so we haven’t had much of an opportunity to practice that. The girls did very well with that. We have some things we’ll need to tweak, but, overall, it’s looking pretty good.”
LaRoche had 5 assists for the Tigers in their first match with the new offense. Addi Lyons recorded 2 kills. Jocie Allen had 8 digs.
The Wildcats went out to an 8-2 lead in the first set. Fort Scott scored the first 3 points of the second set and were still within 14-12 before Louisburg scored five in a row.
Louisburg left the triangular with a season record of 12-5. Four of those losses are to other ranked teams (Topeka-Seaman, No. 2 in Class 5A; Lansing, No. 4 in 5A; DeSoto, No. 5 in 5A; and Burlington, No. 4 in 3A) and Class 6A Manhattan, which is just 7-6 but has lost five matches to other ranked teams.
Girard has been a Class 4A-Division II power in the past. But this season, the Trojans have not been as strong, leaving Thursday’s triangular with a 10-16 record.
The Tigers jumped out to a 5-2 lead early in the first set. Girard came back to tie it but the Tigers went in front again on a kill by Lyons.
A 9-2 run, capped by a Montana kill from a Martin assist, pushed Fort Scott’s lead to 21-12. But then Girard staged a furious rally. They scored four in a row and 5 of 6 but still trailed 23-17 after making an error. Then the Trojans rolled off 6 straight points to tie the set.
An error gave the serve back to the Tigers, who finally put the set away on a Becca Murphy kill.
Girard held a 9-3 lead early in the second set. They also held leads of 13-8 and 18-12.
Finally, at 19-15, the Trojans committed an error and gave serve back to the Tigers, who held it for the next 7 points.
A Girard player stepped on the mid-court line, which gave Fort Scott match point, 24-20. But a Girard kill and a Tiger error saw the gap close to 2 points before Lyons got her team-leading 8th kill of the match to close it out.
“I told them after the match that I have been trying to get them to do that for so many weeks now,” Campbell said. “And I told them that they should never doubt themselves now. They showed in both games what they are capable of doing and they displayed the mental toughness that every coach asks for.”
Kenady Poyner also had 4 kills for the Tigers. LaRoche dished 13 assists. Tacy Holston had 2 aces and LaRoche also had 5 digs while Allen had 3.
The Tigers (7-8) will take part in the Louisburg Tournament today. Their pool play matches will take place at Louisburg Middle School. They face Basehor-Linwood at 8 a.m., Shawnee Mission West at 9 a.m. and Olathe Heritage Christian at 10 a.m. Louisburg, Olathe North, Shawnee Mission West and Leavenworth are in the other pool.