Sub-state volleyball was held in Garden Plain Oct. 20. Leading up to the tournament, the varsity team participated in activities and added players to their roster. This year’s JV players who sat for sub-state were sophomores Karlie Biehler and Tatum Wykes and senior Audrey Doffing.

In the days before sub-state, the intensity at practice increased as the drills became more complex. During the regular season, the team has a drill called Critical Serve, in which everyone has to make three serves over the net, and if anyone misses, the team has a Championship to run. The coaches continued to push this drill and its importance, but they added in the twist of lowering the curtain in the gym to a few feet above the volleyball net, and now the girls had to serve in between the gap.

“We did sub-state warm ups, scrimmaged a bunch, and practiced serving and serve receive. Warm-ups are different for sub-state because we get way more reps and do a serve receive warm-up instead of pepper,” Doffing said.  

Practice also changed to being almost all about fundamentals with less cardio. Outside of practice, the team went to a college volleyball game, had a scary movie night, and went to the football game together.

“I think the scary movie night helped us become closer as a team and build the love we all already had for each other,” said Biehler. “Practicing with varsity was nerve-wracking at first, and I got a lot of hard balls hit at me.”

Although the team ended up losing to Garden Plain in the first round, they still said they believed that they played well and gave it all they had. The Cardinals started out up 5-0, and then they were the first to 10, but Garden Plain retaliated. The final scores were 15-25 and 12-25.

“I’m pretty sad that the season is over and that the seniors will be gone, but I’m excited for next year and know we will do even better,” junior Madison Pauly said.