Trojans reach unexpected Heights

ORIGINALLY WRITTEN DON RATZLAFF
The Hillsboro Trojan volleyball team continued its improbable rags-to-riches season by winning the Class 3A sub-state tournament in Marion Saturday in dominating style.

Jubilant players and coaches hugged each other-and almost everyone else within reach-following a 25-14, 25-14 pounding of Northern Heights in the championship match, celebrating an accomplishment few could have imagined only three weeks earlier.

Sitting at 4-13 then, and struggling to find confidence in the wake of an eight-match losing streak, the Trojans have since won 11 of 13 matches down the home stretch to earn a berth in this week’s state tournament in Salina.

“It was quite unexpected, but it was awesome,” first-year coach Sandy Arnold said of her team’s turnaround. “This is definitely a dream come true.”

This is the first Hillsboro team to make it to state since 2001, but it also will be Arnold’s first trip to Salina in eight seasons as a high school head coach. In fact, Arnold said she had never coached a varsity team in the finals of any tournament before Saturday.

“It was definitely the greatest moment of my coaching career, I can tell you that,” she said.

The Trojans played well, but fate may have smiled on them, too. Hillsboro was assigned to a sub-state that included only two teams with a winning record, neither of which was among the state’s elite.

In fact, the Trojans, who were seeded fourth at 12-15, may have played their toughest opponent in the opening round against neighboring Marion, who was seeded fifth at 10-19.

Hillsboro had defeated the Warriors three times earlier in the season-which was both a confidence builder and a reason to be concerned, Arnold said.

“Going in, I told the girls I didn’t want to play Marion first,” Arnold said. “I just figured they were one of the better teams there. I hated to see one of us go out right away. I also know it’s hard to beat a team four times.”

Her concerns proved to be well founded. The Trojans led Game 1 from start to finish, but the Warriors did rally from a 17-7 deficit with an 8-0 run that pulled them to within two points. The Trojan held on to claim a 25-20 win.

Playing with new confidence, Marion beat Hillsboro handily in Game 2, 25-14, and took a 12-8 lead in the decisive third game.

“I’m human, just like the girls,” Arnold said. “There was a point when I wondered if we were going to be going home. But they didn’t give up.”

On the heels of an Arnold timeout, Hillsboro regrouped and pulled out the victory, 25-17, thanks in part to some aggressive net play by Tina Frick, the Trojans’ 6-foot-2 sophomore.

“I thought Tina stepped up pretty big at the end,” Arnold said. “She blocked some balls and that frustrated them.”

The win put the Trojans into the semifinals against top-seeded Trinity Academy from Wichita. The Knights, who came in at 17-11, had defeated eighth-seeded Mission Valley in two games in their opener, and led the Trojans for most of Game 1.

On the ropes at 17-21, the Trojans launched a dramatic 8-1 run behind the serving of Amy Duerksen and JuliAnne Chisholm to post the 25-22 win.

On the heels of their comeback win, the Trojans were all but untouchable the rest of the night, pounding the Knights into submission in Game 2 by a 25-12 margin.

“Trinity Academy is one of the best passing teams I’ve seen in a long time,” Arnold said. “I think being aggressive-being on the offensive instead of the defensive all the time-is kind of what changed it for us.”

In the finals, Hillsboro faced a weary Northern Heights team. The second-seeded Wildcats, who came in at 16-11, had been pushed to three games in each of its first two matches, including an emotionally draining semifinals battle against Osage City immediately before the finals.

“I think they were very tired and were a very emotional team that let things bother them,” Arnold said. “The girls knew that as much as I did-we had talked about it in the locker room and that was one of the first things they said.”

The Trojans exploited those weaknesses masterfully, and were never threatened in the title match that ended at around 10:20 p.m. with a kill by Frick.

“I felt pretty confident going into that match-I was just hoping the girls did,” Arnold said. “It was just amazing (when the final point was scored). I put my hands over my head because I couldn’t believe it was actually happening. It was awesome.”

Hillsboro’s three sub-state wins give the Trojans a 15-15 record going into state competition-and mark the first time the Trojans have been at .500 since the first weekend of competition.

Arnold credited her team’s turnaround to a combination of factors that led to increasing confidence in their abilities.

“I have talented girls, and that makes a lot of difference,” she said. “There’s a lot of people who say you can win without talent, but you have to have some.

“And they have to be smart as well as talented-and our girls are. They’re doing some of the things I’ve asked them to do and have been trying to teach for a long time. Sometimes kids just don’t have the ability to do that. Ours do.

“I’m very, very happy for my seniors,” Arnold added. “I think they deserved this and worked so hard in the off season. I’ve never seen girls in the weight room that much. I’m very excited for them.

“But also, I think this will be good for the younger girls-to get a taste of it,” Arnold said. “My freshman will see what it is we’re shooting for. I know a lot of them were (at sub-state), and they were pretty excited.”

The Trojans will have their work cut out for them. They will begin play at Salina’s Bicentennial Center in a four-team pool that includes top-seeded Conway Springs (31-1), fourth-seeded Rossville (29-7) and fifth-seeded Lyons (23-6) from the Mid-Central Activities Association.

Hillsboro will open against Conway at 3:30 p.m., Friday. The Cardinals have beaten Hillsboro twice this season, but the Trojans pushed them to 22-25 at the recent Hillsboro Invitational.

The Trojans lost a three-game match to Lyons at the MCAA tournament at the start of the season, while Rossville is unknown to Arnold and her team.

If Hillsboro survives pool play by finishing first or second on Friday, the Trojans will begin bracket play at 2 p.m. Saturday.

Arnold said she will have to call some coaching friends to find out how to prepare a team for state when neither she nor her players have ever competed there.

“I don’t want to make it so big that they’re scared,” she said. “We’re just going to go and play. Nobody expects us to win. The other teams are going to look at our 15-15 record. That might help us in the fact that we might get overlooked.”

Arnold knows her team will be underdogs at Salina, but she also said underdogs have been known to pull off amazing things-especially in recent weeks.

“I told the girls it’s just like the Boston Red Sox-why not us? Why can’t we be the ones? We don’t have anything to lose.”

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