Hillsboro opens its season with a championship performance at the MCAA Preseason Tournament

ORIGINALLY WRITTEN DON RATZLAFF
The Hillsboro High volleyball team delivered the message it hoped to send Saturday at the Mid-Central Activities Association third annual preseason tournament at Lindsborg.

The Trojans are the team to beat in the league this season.

Hillsboro won the tournament with a sweep of all five matches it played, including a three-game win over a tough Hoisington squad in the finals, 26-28, 25-12, 25-15.

“We have a lot of things to work on yet-don’t get me wrong,” said coach Sandy Arnold. “But I did find out we do have some smart girls because we didn’t just hit the ball, we had to find the holes on the other side because there were some good defensive teams.”

To get to the finals, the Trojans had to first battle their way out of a three-team pool to start the day.

And at times it was a battle.

Hillsboro lost the first game of its season-opening match with Halstead, 19-25, before gaining steam with 25-15, 25-8 victories.

“After that first game with Halstead, I wasn’t sure I was doing the right thing (by coaching volleyball),” Arnold said. “(The Dragons) are an improved team. I don’t know if we looked past them too much, or if we were getting used to the libero and the subbing situations.

“That’s not an excuse, but it was something we were working on.”

Against Marion, the Trojans won the first game comfortably, 25-11, but found themselves in a dogfight with Warriors in Game 2 before nailing down a 25-20 victory.

“Marion came back and played harder and a little better, and we had to step it up a notch (in Game 2),” Arnold said. “But I thought we held our composure. We could have fallen apart right there and had to go three (games). I was pleased we maintained our composure until we pulled it out.”

The top two teams from each of the four three-team pools moved on to compete in an eight-team championship bracket.

As the winner of its pool, Hillsboro faced off in the opening round against Ellinwood, the No. 2 team in its pool. The Trojans took care of the undersized Eagles, 25-16, 25-18, on the strength of Hillsboro’s front-line blocking.

“Ellinwood was a decent team with decent fundamentals, but were a little bit shorter,” Arnold said. “Throughout the whole afternoon, our blocking helped us a lot-not just with the teams that were short, but with teams like Hoisington. That became a factor for us.”

In the semifinals, Hillsboro defeated Haven, 25-14, 25-15. The Wildcats were No. 2 in their pool, but had defeated No. 1 Lyons in the first round of bracket play.

“I wanted to make sure we were ready for them,” Arnold said. “We had to be on our toes, never knowing what kind of ball was coming back over the net. It wasn’t like fast hits were coming at us every time, so you never knew for sure where to go.

“I thought we did well,” she added. “We were on the offense a lot, and that helped.”

Hillsboro fell behind early in the first game of the championship match with Hoisington, then came back late in the game but couldn’t pull out the win.

“Hoisington’s a good team,” Arnold said. “They’ve got good tradition and good coaching. We knew it would be tough. I think we were a little intimidated in the beginning.

“We did fight back in the first game, and I think that helped us going into the second and third games because we knew it was going to be tough competition but that we could play with them.

“Again, it took us a game to get used to their hitters and get our blockers in the right places. I think our blockers started to intimidate them a little bit. They were trying to hit around us and started to hit out of bounds.

“Our defense stepped it up and our passing was a whole lot better as the day went on.”

Coming-With their tournament sweep at Lindsborg, the Trojans start the season at 5-0 for the first time in Arnold’s three-year tenure.

The Trojans were scheduled to play a quadrangular at Lyons Tuesday, Aug. 29, against Claflin, Goessel and the hometown Lions.

They’ll be back in action again next Tuesday at Haven, where the triangular format will also include Halstead. Action begins at 5:30 p.m.

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