Playing their first tournament at home, the Manhattan High School Varsity volleyball team had their ups and downs. They finished third in the tournament with three wins and two loses.

Starting the tournament at 9 a.m., the Lady Indians played their first match against Olathe East. The girls won the game 25-20 and 28-26, with the second set reaching a deuce.

“That was probably our best game so far of the season,” sophomore right-side hitter Kia Wilson said. “I thought we played really well. We played like we wanted to win in the first game.”

Their next game was against Topeka High. With some trouble in the beginning, Manhattan eventually won this game as well, scoring 25-18 and 25-14.

“I think we just kind of thought that this would be an easier game so we let our guard down a bit more than we normally should so we didn’t take it as serious,” junior middle blocker Mackenzie Pease said. “On the second set we got it back and got our flow.”

Manhattan’s third game of the day brought the team’s first loss. The Lady Indians lost against Blue Valley West, the 2016 State Champions, 18-25 and 13-25.

“We’re not unfamiliar with them; we played them last year,” junior setter Kenzie Smith said. “[They are] probably the hardest team in the tournament. We did pretty good the first set, maybe could have started out better. They have a fast game, a fast played game. We did all right blocking. We didn’t necessarily give up; maybe in the second set we kind of died down on our confidence.”

For their fourth game of the day, Manhattan went up against Bishop Miege. The girls won 25-20 and 25-21.

“Bishop, they weren’t as big and they were scrappy,” senior middle blocker Gigi McAtee said. “We came out from the break and we competed well. We could have been tired, not really ready yet, but we finished that game. We kind of let them get back up in the second game. But we did a good job finishing.”

The final game of the day was against Shawnee Heights. The girls lost both sets 13-25 and 22-25.

“Shawnee Heights has a lot of talent,” McAtee said. “I’m proud of us for competing against them. Every time we’ve played them, we’ve played them close. They’re a really good team but so are we.”

The Lady Indians will play their next game today in Lawrence. Their next home game will not be until Oct. 18, which will serve as their Dig Pink game for breast cancer awareness and their senior night.