A fourth place finish isn’t how the Manhattan High Volleyball team planned to finish the state tournament Saturday. That placing followed a hard fight that included solid wins on Friday, in part due to their unbreakable team bonds.

“Not one person can take over a game it takes the entire team. I love the game and all the girls I get to play with so knowing they have my back and I have theirs really helps with any pressure,” junior Brooklyn Cink said.

The girls started their journey at state by facing Blue Valley Northwest. In the first set, Manhattan started off by trailing, but they were never behind by more than five points and were eventually able to pull ahead and win 25-21 with senior Kenzie Pease making the final hit to end the set.

In the second set, the girls led by two to three the whole time, ending with a hit from Brooklyn Cink making the score 25-21. The MHS team had won their first match in the state tournament against Blue Valley Northwest.

In their second match of the night, the team took on the defending state champions of Olathe Northwest. They started off by getting an early lead of 4-1.

“I knew it was a big game and there was a lot on the line I knew I had to do as much as I could to help the team, “ junior Haleigh Harper said.

She was getting getting her hands on four consecutive tough balls to give her team some energy.

“That’s my job as a libero to get balls up in the back row so I wasn’t doing much, just my job and I’m thankful my teammates could play my ups and get a kill and get a point,” Harper said.  

After that, things went downhill when Olathe acquired a lead of 13-11. MHS was behind the rest of the set and ended up losing 17-25. The girls were unable to get any more momentum in the second set where Olathe had the upper hand the entire time, and MHS was defeated 14-25, leaving them with a loss on the overall match.

Even though they were defeated by Olathe, the team kept their heads up while they faced yet another opponent: Hutchinson.

“We as a team have battled through a lot of adversity this year, and we knew that it wasn’t going to stop today so we knew that once we lost that game we just had to battle through, battle through losing and coming back,” Harper said.

The girls used the frustration of losing to Olathe to come back and battle with Hutchinson. While MHS started with a lead of 7-3, Hutch quickly tied it at 13, not wanting to fall behind. The rest of the set the lead kept switching back and forth between teams, never favoring one side. Finally Manhattan was able to pull ahead and the game ended with a block from junior Kia Wilson and senior Meg Auten ending the set 25-20. In the second set, MHS started with 5-0 lead that only increased as the game went on. Even though Hutch tried to get their heads back in the game by calling two timeouts, the Indians never let up, leaving them with a 25-7 victory and an advancement to the next round of state.

During the second day, the Indians came back looking for redemption but didn’t seem to be awake in their first game against Blue Valley West. In the first set, the team started off a little rough with a deficit of 4-11. They called a timeout but just couldn’t make up for the lost points, ending the set 9-25. In the next set, the girls started off the same way but picked it up later. While they kept fighting they just couldn’t get the upper hand and lost 20-25.

“We didn’t play like we know how to nor did we play our game. They came prepared and ready to win and we didn’t,” Cink said.

They went on to play against Washburn Rural for third at state. They started their first set better than the game before, with a close score of 9-11. With a couple of missed serves on MHS, a timeout was called. The final score was 17-25 in the first set. The second set, the girls knew they had to pick it up, so they did just that. They started with a lead of 9-4, but unfortunately that only lasted a short time when Washburn tied it up at 14. Two timeouts and a few points later Manhattan lost 19-25, leaving them fourth in the state. Even though they didn’t come out victorious, everyone played their hearts out and enjoyed their run at state.

“State is always such an awesome opportunity and getting to play with these girls made it a really great and fun experience,” Cink said, “These girls are just a super fun and loving group. We are all so close with each other and they definitely made state a good experience.”