With a fast-paced start, girls Varsity volleyball quickly began the night’s match against Topeka West. The girls came out with a straight set win. The first set ended at 25-15 and the match ended with Manhattan winning at 25-6 in the second set.

“We expected it to be fast,” junior setter Kenzie Pease said. “We had a goal; keeping it under 10, making less than two errors really and limiting ourselves like, playing to our expectations and not playing down to other teams’ levels and stuff like that.”

Pease made 18 sets against Topeka West.

Next, Manhattan faced off against Topeka High. The Lady Indians walked away with another two set win. They won the first set with 25-16 and won the match with 25-8.

“[Topeka High] did not dig up as many passes as the first team,” junior defensive specialist Emily Armbrust said. “[There was a change in pace], as we play we get more energy, as a team we get excited, and as more fans come the more excited we get also.”

Armbrust averaged seven digs during the Topeka High game.

Manhattan then played against Concordia for the final game of the night. Running into a three set match, the girls eventually emerged victorious with a 25-19 score for set three.

“The fun [was different than earlier games],” sophomore defensive specialist Haleigh Harper said.  “Coming into [Topeka High] and [Topeka West], it wasn’t — we knew from last year — that it wasn’t going to be an easy match but it wasn’t going to be one of our hardest. Concordia, we went to watch them finish their sets against [Topeka West] and we saw that they had some good players that we had to look out for and coming into it, we knew that they would be a better opponent.”

Harper ended the night with six digs overall. Junior hitter Meg Auten averaged 60 attacks throughout the night. Senior middle blocker Gigi McAtee served 43 attacks with five of those being service aces. Senior libero Jaylie Thornton made 30 digs by tournament’s end.

Varsity will be going to Seaman this Saturday for a tournament. The team’s next home meet will not be until Oct 8.