Adversity is a factor that often presents itself in the game of volleyball, just as it did when the Manhattan High volleyball team went 1-1 against Shawnee Heights and Lansing.

“We played very well against Shawnee Heights,” senior Emily Armbrust said. “I think we were a little bit intimidated, which we had a right to be because they were very good, but we definitely put up a good fight and we had several very nice plays as a team against Lansing, but we did very well against Shawnee Heights team wise, everyone played well and worked hard.”

The team was able to beat Shawnee Heights, but fell short of beating Lansing. Adversity is a challenge that the team has seen previously in the season, but they had not yet seen the challenge that Lansing presented to them.

“We didn’t really know too much about lansing since they aren’t in our league,” Armbrust said. “We watched film on them one time and we knew that they were going to be very good and that we were going to have to play very well if we wanted to stick with them, and then we really wanted to beat Shawnee Heights because they are in our league, and we haven’t won league since our coach has been here and so it would be very nice to beat them.”

While the team did face a lot of adversity with playing a team they have not yet seen, they were still able to overcome that challenge and play to the best of their ability. Although that wasn’t the only challenge that presented itself during the match.

“They were just an all around solid team,” senior Raegan Wilcoxson said.  “They have four athletes on their team who are committed to D-1 schools and they just came out with a lot of energy and we just didn’t match that. Our libero tore her meniscus last week so we had to make a lot of changes to compensate for that, but I thought we put up a good run against them, they were just better that night.”

The team’s next meet is on Tuesday where they will play their rival, Washburn Rural. Despite beating Shawnee Heights, and putting up a good run against Lansing, the team still plans to make improvements.

“I think if anything it would just be getting better at consistency since our libero tore her meniscus and will be out for a while,” Armbrust said. “Just trying to get as much touches on the ball as possible like always.”