If at first you don’t succeed, try, try, try, again.
Pittsburg High’s Purple Dragons were in their fourth straight Iola High Invitational championship match here Saturday. The previous three years, they had to settle for second.
Not in 2010.
The Purple Dragons defeated two-time defending champion Anderson County High’s Lady Bulldogs 18-25, 25-16, 25-21. Pittsburg is one of only four teams that have won the IHS Invitational in its 20-year run.
Anderson County won the tournament for the first 13 years. Iola broke through for a three-year run. Labette County won in 2007 then the Lady Bulldogs added titles 14 and 15 the past two years.
Labette County defeated Burlington 25-23, 25-18 for third place.
Iola High’s Fillies and the Humboldt High Lady Cubs did not make it out of pool play Saturday. The Fillies went 1-2 and the Lady Cubs were 0-3 as Labette County won the pool and Pittsburg was second.
“We played well against Humboldt and Pittsburg. We were ahead of Pittsburg and let them back in to win. That was frustrating,” said Jodi Grover, Fillies’ head coach.
Iola defeated Humboldt 25-19, 25-14 to open the tournament. Labette County won the next two matches in the pool beating Pittsburg 25-18 26-24 and Humboldt 26-6, 25-18.
“We played sluggish in the first match and had too many ball handling errors,” said Stephanie Splechter, Humboldt head coach about facing Iola. “We did not handle Kelsey Larson’s serves.”
Splechter said her team played their best match of the season against Labette County. She said the Lady Cubs were “out-manned” but never let down.
Humboldt fought Labette County point for point in the second game. Amanda Maxton had eight set assists for Humboldt in the match. Melissa Davidson and Hannah McCall each downed four kills and Brandi Malloy had three kills.
Against Iola, Humboldt got five service points each from Malloy and Taylor Fitzmaurice. Maxton was credited with eight set assists and McCall had four kills.
Then it was Iola and Pittsburg on the court. The two Southeast Kansas League foes had a back-and-forth first game. With Kirstin McGuffin serving, Iola took a 22-20 lead.
The Fillies were up 24-22 but a bad serve put the volleyball back in the Dragons’ hands. “Three bad passes off the serve in a row and Pittsburg tied the game and won it,” Grover said.
Pittsburg’s Andie Casper and Skyler Muff proved to be pretty tough for the Fillies. Casper served seven straight points and most came from the net play of Muff.
Pittsburg led 9-1 in the second game. Iola tried to get back into contention but the Fillies had no answer for Muff at the net. Pittsburg went on to win the game 25-20.
Riana Dolenz served for five points against Pittsburg and McGuffin had four. Toni Taylor finished with three service points. Kelsey Larson and Kendra Taiclet had one service point each.
Humboldt lost to Pittsburg 25-16, 25-19. Davidson had five kills and McCall had four kills. Maxton had six assists.
“We played hard but had too many missed serves,” Splechter said. “It is never fun to lose three matches but this was a good learning experience for us. Now the girls know that they can play at a higher level.”
The Fillies took on another SEK opponent, Labette County, losing 25-8, 25-19. Labette County opened the first game serving six straight points.
“The girls could not put together their defense and offense against Labette,” Grover said. “We had girls not hitting the ground on digs, getting to the block or getting to coverage.”
Iola only notched eight service points in the match. McGuffin had three, Taylor and Kelsey Adams each served for two and Taiclet had one.
For the three matches, Taiclet delivered 18 kills and had four solo blocks at the net plus had four digs. Dolenz downed 11 kills and had one block and had five digs.
Larson was credited with 28 set assists. She had five kills at the net. She had three ace serves and three digs. Taylor had 12 assists and three kills.
McGuffin had two ace serves, four digs and two kills. Adams had two kills and three digs. Keli Lee had two digs and Libby Shay had one dig.
“The difference between the final four teams and us was that those teams never stopped pursuing the ball. We are missing the inner drive at times from the players to never give up on the ball,” Grover said of the Fillies.
Grover said overall, the Fillies’ passing was much better. They increased the amount of hitting attempts because the passing was better.
“But we need to be aggressive on our hits. When watching the top teams in the tournament, they hit hard all day long, quick arm swings and with power,” Grover said.
“I know our team has the capability to hit hard and a few of the girls do. We need all hitters to get more aggressive to be at a higher competition level and make us a more competitive team.”
Grover said the girls are working hard. The Fillies have an entire week off to work and prepare.
In the other pool, Anderson County beat Caney Valley 25-17, 25-20, Burlington beat Cherryvale 25-14, 25-17, Anderson County defeated Cherryvale 25-14, 25-14, Burlington downed Caney Valley 25-14, 25-14, Caney Valley beat Cherryvale 25-16, 25-21 then Burlington beat Anderson County 17-25, 25-20, 25-12.
In the semifinal matches, Anderson County got past Labette County 25-20, 25-22 and Pittsburg beat Burlington 18-25, 25-16, 25-21.
Pittsburg captures IHS Invitational title
