By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Both Washburn Rural volleyball coach Kevin Bordewick and Shawnee Heights coach Sami Kearney know that their teams still have plenty to work on as they get deeper into the 2025 season.
But both Bordewick and Kearney also had plenty to feel good about after Thursday's triangular at Shawnee Heights.
Senior Karsyn Horyna (21) celebrates the final point in Washburn Rural's three-set win over Shawnee Heights Thursday night. [Photo by Rick Peterson/TSN]
For Bordewick, the biggest positive was that his No. 6-ranked Junior Blues were able to come through when it counted the most to cap a 2-0 night with a hard-earned three-set 25-14, 19-25, 25-23 victory over Shawnee Heights in the final match of the night.
"Shawnee Heights is a good team,'' said Bordewick, whose team is now 11-4 on the season. "They've played some tough competetion and they've scored some points on some of the top teams in the state in 5A and 6A. I knew that for years, forever, they have been feisty and scrappy and that's exactly what they have right there.
"Not taking anything away from Shawnee Heights at all, I think we can play better, but the good news is we fought through adversity and we found a way to win.''
And although she was disappointed that her T-Birds came up just short against Rural, Kearney was thrilled with the way her team battled throughout the night en route to a 1-1 split against Class 6A foes Blue Valley Northwest and Rural, with Heights taking a 27-25, 25-21 win over the Huskies to avenge a recent loss before taking the Junior Blues down to the wire after rebounding from an 11-point first-set loss.
"Other nights we might have just stopped playing and we didn't stop playing,'' said Kearney, whose T-Birds are 12-13. "I was very proud. This is probably one of the better games I've seen and felt with my team and that was a good time to turn it on. If not for a couple of mistakes here and there we would have had it.
"Rural's a great team, I will always admire them. They work hard, they're fast and quick, but I was happy to see that we can get up to the competition and we played really well tonight. I don't like losing, but I'm happy with how we played.''
Rural dominated the first set, finishing off the 25-14 win with a kill from senior Dayne Shriver, but Shawnee Heights bounced back in the second set, jumping out to an 8-1 advantage and going up 12-5 on a kill from junior Sami Baum and 17-11 on a kill from senior Brooke McCabe.
Shawnee Heights senior Avery Willey makes a return in Thursday's triangular at Heights. [Photo by Rick Peterson/TSN]
Rural cut Heights' lead to 18-17 and was still within 22-19 before the T-Birds ran off the final three points of the set to force a third set.
Heights and Rural took turns with the upper hand in the third set and there were ties at 20, 21 and 23 before the Junior Blues closed out the win with back to back points.
Freshman Brynn Anderson spikes the ball in Washburn Rural's straight-set win over Blue Valley Northwest.[Photo by Rick Peterson/TSN]
Brynn Anderson, a 5-foot-11 freshman, came up huge at the net for the Junior Blues Thursday, and like her coach, was thrilled that the Junior Blues were able to gut out a win over the T-Birds.
"I think we settled a little in the second set and then we all had that refuse-to-lose mindset,'' Anderson said. "We were going to get it done in the third set. We were going to go home 2-0 and that was our goal.''
MATCH RESULTS
Shawnee Heights def. Blue Valley Northwest, 27-25, 25-21; Washburn Rural def. Blue Valley Northwest, 25-21, 25-18; Washburn Rural def. Shawnee Heights, 25-14, 19-25, 25-23.
