Eating their first loss of the season at their home tournament on Saturday, the Chanute Blue Comets claimed third place in a loaded volleyball field.
“On some levels, it was good to have that pressure of an undefeated season removed,” Chanute head coach Jory Murry said. “Having it happen on a Saturday instead of a league game made it easier. Girard had multiple runs where we couldn’t get a side-out in the second and third sets. In the second set, we were just behind the whole game. We couldn’t get ourselves out of situations. That was the first game we couldn’t come back from it.”
Chanute won all three matches in pool play against Jayhawk-Linn, Frontenac and Labette County before suffering a loss in the semifinals to Girard, 2-1 (14-25, 25-23, 25-20).
“We’re talking a lot to our middles about court awareness and figuring out how to adjust,” Murry said. “We’ve got to do a better job of recognizing things on the court and making those adjustments.”
Chanute recovered to take third place, beating Frontenac in the third-place match.
“The thing I was most excited about was the ability to take that first loss and immediately come back,” Murry said. “It was a solid second win over Frontenac. They bounced back immediately and played stronger.”
McPherson won the tournament title, beating Girard in the championship.
Through the five matches of the tournament for the Blue Comets, Addy Hughes piled up 48 kills while Josey Henson added 29. Brynna Peter also had a dozen kills.
Hughes also racked up 11 blocks.
Up next
Chanute, now 26-1 overall, heads to Coffeyville for SEK League play on Tuesday to face Fort Scott and the hosts.
“We’ve played Fort Scott twice this year and both times we’ve struggled in one of the sets,” Murry said. “My goal for the girls is to have a nice, clean win against Fort Scott and really step up the communication. Because we’re smaller, we let that get in our heads sometimes. So I want to see some confidence build.”
Chanute is currently the No. 1 seed in the KSHSAA 4A East standings.
