The Lady Indian volleyball team hosted an invitational tournament on Aug. 31. Their current record is now 3-2, after winning their pool play matches against Wheatland 25-23, 27-25, and against Scott Community 25-1, and 25-17. 

They also played Salina South and won 25-22 and 25-20.

Hays High, TMP, Salina South, Colby, Bucklin, Scott Community, Olathe West, and Wheatland were the eight teams that participated in the invitational.  

“I think we can improve by putting the block up and just getting the serves over and in,” freshman Carly Lang said. 

Lang is one of the two underclassmen on varsity, and these were her first high school games of her career. 

“I think we did a really good job of getting where we needed to be on defense and putting the ball down in clutch situations,” Lang said. 

The athletes played five games in total against Wheatland, Olathe West, Scott Community, Salina South, and Olathe West again. 

“We definitely know our strengths and weaknesses and what we need to work on in practice,” sophomore Aleyia Ruder said. “We can only go up now because they (Olathe West) is good team and we know exactly what we need to do so we can come back stronger.”  

Coach Christin Nunnery was proud of her team and the way they faced the challenges that were thrown at them. 

 “I feel like we learned a lot as the game progressed,” Nunnery said. “We became a lot more aggressive, which is something we needed to see from all of our hitters. Our back row has been playing pretty consistent, which is great.”  

They faired very well, with only two losses on the day, Nunnery said.  Their first loss was in pool play to Olathe West, and their second was also to Olathe West in the championship game. 

If they (Hays and Olathe West) ever meet up and play again, junior Brooklyn Schaffer thinks things will be different.  

“We will definitely read them better, watch film of the games, and we can work on things we struggled on.” Schaffer said. 

22bschwien@usd489.com