On Sept. 7 at the Junction City Junior Varsity Invitational, the freshman volleyball team took third out of eight teams that participated at the tournament. 

The tournament had two parts in which the teams played — the first part was pool play. In each pool game, the opposing teams only played two sets. The winner of each match would depend on who scored the most points per set. Each set was played to 25. They played three teams in pool play. 

MHS’s first game was against Salina Central. The first set the girls lost  25-11. MHS won the second set 26-24,which led Salina Central to win the match. 

“After the first set against Salina Central where we didn’t play great, they played really well,” coach Scott Mall said. “Especially here, to get third place in a tournament where everyone is J.V. but for us it’s very good. We are by far the youngest team here.” 

The girls played against Highland Park next. During the first set of this game, the team had a prominent lead and MHS won that set 25-8. The second set MHS also won 25-12, which meant they won the match.

The third and final pool game was against Topeka High. Going into this match, the girls knew they had to win both sets to proceed to bracket play. 

Throughout the course of the first set, the game was close. After some ups and downs, MHS won 25-17. Their second set wasn’t as close. MHS won this game 25-14. 

“When they had to beat Topeka High to get into bracket they stepped up and played really accurately,” Mall said.

Once the girls had won that game, the team was moved up into bracket play, which only the top four teams made. The team played differently than the pool. For one, matches are played best out of three sets. If a third set was needed, it was played to 15 points. 

 The first tournament was against Shawnee Heights. MHS picked it up towards the end but lost that set 25-15. The second set they lost 25-21. This meant that the team played for third instead of first.

The team played their final game that night against Chapman. This game, they had a consistent lead and won the first set 25-20. The team won that set 25-20. 

“I really liked Chapman because it was difficult enough for it to be challenging, but easy enough to win,” freshman Hailey Vardiman said.

Throughout the course of the tournament, the girls did different things to bond, like eating lunch and playing as a team. 

“We weren’t getting down on ourselves when we were down points, because we were just having fun,” freshman Ava Reese said. “We knew it was the end of the day.”

Improvement and consistency are the biggest things the team are looking forward to this season. They can only hope to get better and that continues next Tuesday at Junction City.