Ark Valley News - Valley Center sweeps league triangular

Emily Klusener scores a block point against Rose Hill. She had 6.5 blocks in Valley's home tournament Sept. 12.

Valley Center sweeps league triangular
By Randy Fisher
Last Updated: September 17, 2015

After starting the season 1-5, the Valley Center High School volleyball team has played a lot of up and down volleyball. In the past week, the Hornets went 6-2. They swept a league triangular Sept. 15 at Ark City and finished second in their own tournament Sept. 12. Valley is now 10-8 overall and 4-1 in AVCTL II.

The Hornets sweep certainly wasn't pretty, as they could have easily lost both matches. Despite trailing late in all five sets, Valley came back to beat Ark City 23-25, 25-23, 25-14 and Andover 27-25, 27-25.

"They never give up, that's for sure," said coach Holly Rutter. "They might have their bad times, they have their good times, but they don't ever quit. … I told them even though we keep going through this, they're progressively getting better about coming back and doing more damage."

This may be the best Ark City team in several years, and it showed by winning the first set. Valley rallied to lead 22-20 but couldn't hold off the Bulldogs, who won 25-23.

The second set looked like the first with a lot of back and forth. Most of the time, Valley Center was playing catch-up. Behind the hitting and blocking of their 6-foot-2 senior middle, Brylee Burroughs, the Bulldogs seemed in control at 20-14.

Alora Klinkhammer got things started for Valley with a kill in the middle. After a hitting error, Kyli Webber pulled Valley to within 20-17. But the real damage came when Burroughs rotated out of the lineup.

That's when Emily Klusener took over, dominating the middle. Trailing 22-19, Klusener scored four of Valley's next five points for a 24-23 lead. Miranda Dessenberger deadlocked the match with a block point for the set win.

"When my team was struggling, I wanted to step up and help carry us to the next set," Klusener said. "Once one person starts working really hard, usually it's a domino effect and the whole team works hard together."

"She (Klusener) is going in there confident where I think when we get down, a lot of our team gets really complacence or scared," Rutter said. "Other people helped out with that, but she really was the one to bring us back and bring us to life."

Valley finally settled in for the third set and won easily. Tied at 2, Webber and Klusener each scored twice to put the Hornets up 7-3. Webber had three more kills the rest of the way and Klusener scored the last two points as Valley won 25-14.

Although Andover was ranked eighth in Class 5A, the Trojans struggled at the Valley Center tournament without one of their top players, Nicole Klusener. She played against Valley and with Andover's supporting class, almost won.

The Hornets built a 19-14 lead in the first set before the Trojans moved in front 22-20 on a pair of Nicole Klusener kills. A dink by Kailey Person put the Hornets at set point, 23-22, but they couldn't get over the hump as Nicole Klusener pulled Andover into a 25-24 lead. A Trojan error, followed by a dink from Reagan Fischer and a kill off the quick set by Emily Klusener pulled out a 27-25 win for Valley.

The second set was just as close as the first. After Nicole Klusener put Andover up 21-20, Fischer pounded one through a block to tie the game for the ninth time. An Andover violation, a deep ace from Pearson and a Webber kills gave Valley a 24-21 advantage. Leading 24-23, a net violation nullified what appeared to be the winning point that Lily Bolte had knifed through the defense.

A kill gave the Trojans a 25-24 advantage, but they would score no more. Webber's cross-court kill, followed by an over the net violation and a little push shot by Teagan Wilson enabled Valley to escape with another 27-25 win.

"I thought Kailey did a really good job setting and playing defense," Rutter said. "She's a really great leader."

After opening the VC tournament with a Jekyll and Hyde performance, the Hornets bounced back to finish strong.

"Getting second at your home tournament is pretty awesome," Rutter said. "Yeah, we would have like to gotten first. But from the beginning of the day, it could have gone a lot worse than it did."

Valley went up against Bishop Carroll, No. 8 in Class 5A, in the championship match. The Golden Eagles had dominated the inconsistent Hornets earlier in pool play. Although the outcome was the same, Valley played much better in losing 15-25, 26-24, 25-22.

"It wasn't that back and forth team we saw earlier. They kept their consistency the whole time, Rutter said. "Carroll just kind of beat us the first game. … We played a really good game the second one. And in the third one, we just didn't quite get it."

The deciding match was close, with a few points separating the teams. But cream rises to the top, as they say, as Carroll eked out the win.

"When we came back and took them three sets and only lost by a few points, that was way better," Pearson said. "If we can do that good against Bishop Carroll, a team like that, we could go really far this season."

Valley's road to the finals seemed in jeopardy from the get go. Rutter was confused about when the Hornets played. For some reason, she thought they played closer to 9 a.m. rather than at 8 as the schedule showed. Frantic calls and text messages about 7:30 a.m. managed to get everyone to the gym for the start. At least physically.

"The first game they were not really in the building yet," she said of the match against Wichita East. "But they came back and won the next two, which is a little out of character for them."

In the first set, the Blue Aces extended a 10-5 lead to 12 points (21-9) before winning 24-17. After a performance like that, Valley has folded its tent several times this year. But today was different. The Hornets bounced back to eke out wins in the next two sets.

Tied at 14 in the second set, Webber pounded one down to give Valley the lead for good. Leading 21-20, another Webber kill — she had 47 on the day — and an ace from Evann Shelton pushed the advantage to three. A booming cross-court kill by Fischer sealed the deal in a 25-22 win.

The Blue Aces' only lead of the final set was 19-18. They tied the game at 20 before the Hornets eased away. Webber scored two and Klinkhammer one down the stretch of the 25-23 victory.

Against Carroll in pool play, Valley looked like the Hornets of previous games this year. They never led in the match, last tying the first set at 13-all before Carroll pulled away to win 25-15. In the second set, Carroll opened a 17-6 lead and coasted 25-17.

Next up was Wichita North, which had taken Carroll to three sets before losing. The Redskins took the Hornets to three as well before Valley pulled it out.

Leading the first set 13-10, North outscored the Hornets 9-1 and took control at 22-11. The Redskins went on to win 25-18.

The second set was all Valley. Leading 18-9, the Hornets ripped off five more points for a 23-9 lead and won 25-12.

In the third set, a dink from Fischer and a Redskin error put Valley up to stay, 13-11. Fischer and Dessenberger each recorded kills, while Webber had two for a 23-18 lead. After North pulled to within 23-22, Pearson's dink and Dessenberger's ace closed out the match.

"I think that helped with our confidence a little more going into this last game because they looked like a whole new team this last match," Rutter said of the last two sets.

Valley wrapped up pool play against Garden City, who had also pushed Bishop Carroll to three sets. The Hornets never trailed in winning 25-14 and 25-13.

JV splits tri, takes third — After splitting a triangular and a third-place tournament finish, the Hornets are now 7-4 on the year.

Valley defeated Ark City 25-14, 17-25, 15-7.

"We started off really strong in the first set and then went mental during second set," coach Kyrie McKee said. "We were able to come back thanks to the leadership of our libero Alex Sparks and our starting setter Ashlyn Joyal.

Against Andover, the Hornets lost 14-25, 25-14, 8-15.

"Andover was just bigger at the net than we were. Our hitters couldn't hit around their block and our blockers were super slow at the net," McKee said. "Camille Claussen stepped up and made a few key hits, but we still came up short."

At Conway Springs, the Hornets beat Mulvane (26-24, 25-18) and Wichita Independent (25-15, 25-9) before losing in to the host team 25-23, 21-25, 14-16.

"Started off the morning a little rocky with Mulvane but came back to beat them the first set when we were down 23-15," McKee said. "We found our groove against Independent, then started off well against Conway Springs. I feel like we just ran out of gas against the hometown team."

Valley lost in the semifinals to Cheney 18-25, 9-25. The Hornets bounced back to handle Conway Springs in a rematch 25-16, 25-16 for third.

Madison Runnion led the team with 17 kills, and Ashlyn Joyal recorded 14. Emma Meyer led the defense with 31 digs.

Frosh in quad — At Salina Central Sept. 10, the Hornets went 1-3. They are now 3-3 on the season.

Valley defeated Salina South 20-25, 25-23, 15-10 behind six aces from Maddie Eckert and five kills by Faith Stacy. The Hornets lost 11-25, 20-25 to Salina Central, as Destini McNeil had four kills. They also lost to Maize South 15-25, 4-25.

"The girls had some really good moments during the night," said coach Kaitlin Woellhof. "We need to work on piecing that together for an entire game."