Goessel volleyball season ends at state
By DELBERT PETERS
Sports writer
The five seniors on Goessel High School's volleyball team, Allison Banman, Brandi Raymond, Brianna Unrau, Sarah Unruh and Brittany Voth, saw their careers end at the 1A State Tournament Friday in Hays.
The Bluebirds suffered defeat in three matches but earned their way through a tough season to represent their school at the state's most honored volleyball event.
Goessel was defeated by Axtell 25-14, 25-21, by Wallace County 26-24, 25-22, and by state champion Baileyville B&B 25-20, 25-16.
The 2005 Goessel team advanced to the state tournament in volleyball as the eighth seed in the 1A bracket. Six of their 11 losses during the season were to teams also participating in the tournament.
The Bluebirds' first match was against number one seeded Axtell. The first game jitters showed up almost immediately as error after error allowed Axtell to jump to a 12-2 lead.
The Bluebirds kept that margin for most of the game. The game ended with a score of 25-14.
The second game was different as the Bluebirds trailed 11-10 but were never able to take the lead away from the Eagles. Trailing 21-18, Sarah Unruh hit a winner down the left sideline and Courtney Berkholz controlled a tip for another score, getting Goessel within one point, 21-20. However, the Bluebirds lost the match with the second game score 25-21.
Wallace County High School from western Kansas was Goessel's next opponent.
Both games were close, but the Bluebirds suffered an unusual amount of serving errors in this match. The game was tied 9-9 and still tied at 20-20. Goessel fell behind 24-21, but rallied to tie the game 24-24, forcing a Wallace County timeout.
The game ended with the Wildcats scoring two points in a row. The second game was close like the first. Goessel led 7-4 and 15-12, but the Wildcats took the lead 18-16.
A Kory Hiebert kill gave the Bluebirds some life and the game was tied 18-18. In spite of two Bluebird serving errors the game was still tied 20-20. A kill from Berkholz helped, but Goessel got into trouble with one hitting error and a passing mistake, and the Wildcats took game two 25-22.
Baileyville B&B had won both of its matches in pool play when it faced the Bluebirds, but Goessel seemed up to the task.
Allison Banman earned assists and the team got back-to-back kills from Sarah Unruh and Berkholz to wiggle to a 9-6 lead in game one.
However, the Falcons scratched out a 14-13 lead, but a Hiebert block and kill kept the game close at 18-17.
A net violation, bad pass and, a spike into the net allowed the Falcons to jump ahead 23-17, and the Bluebirds were unable to get back into the game before it ended 25-20.
In the second game of the match the Bluebirds fell behind 12-3 and could not mount a rally that cut deeply into the deficit. Goessel lost the game 25-16.
The Bluebirds' season ended with a record of 23-14.
