Star-Journbal Editor
Led by seniors JuliAnne Chisholm, Tina Frick, and Jenny Whisenhunt, the Hillsboro High School volleyball team on Saturday earned the right to compete for the Class 3A state title.
After winning the sub-state championship in their raucous home gym, the Trojans (32-1) will be the second- highest seed when the eight-team tournament begins at 3:30 p.m. Friday at the Salina Bicentennial Center.
Qualifying teams have been divided in two pools, and each team will play three games on Friday.
As the top seed in Pool B, Hillsboro will play its first match at 3:30 p.m. against seventh-seeded Silver Lake (24-9); followed at 5:30 against sixth-seeded Cheney (25-8), and at 7:30 against third-seeded Sacred Heart (31-2).
The top two teams from each pool will advance to the semi-finals at 2 p.m. Saturday. Consolation and championship matches will begin 25 minutes after the last semifinal game.
Of all the teams to make it to the big stage, which one made a more dramatic entrance than Hillsboro?
The Trojans scored eight unanswered points in the sub-state finals at their home gym Saturday to defeat Hutchinson Trinity Academy 25-16, 26-24.
"There was a little too much drama for one afternoon," Whisenhunt said. "But we pulled through. It was great!"
Hillsboro reached the finals by defeating Marion 25-12, 25-20, and Remington 25-21, 25-21.
In the best of three final, Hillsboro won the first game 25-16. But in the second game, Trinity went on a 7-1 run to take a 12-7 lead. The score went back and forth until Trinity led 24-18 and needed just one point to force a decisive game three.
The Trojans were confident of victory, said Frick, whose spikes down the stretch made the difference.
"We knew we could do it, no doubt," said the 6-2 senior. "We just had to play our game and put it all together."
Behind the topspin serving of junior Amy Neufeld, the Trojans did put it all together, one crucial point at a time, knowing that a single mistake would cost them a point, and the game.
The Trojans calmly and deliberately diffused Trinity's lead. Chisholm shoveled dig after dig to setter Whisenhunt, who put the ball up high for Frick, who slammed one blurring spike after another.
Trinity blocked and dug some of Frick's spikes, but couldn't stop them all. Hillsboro came back to tie the score at 24.
Now the first team to lead by two points would win.
Chisholm and Frick both had had chances to score points from the serving line, but were unable to convert on their explosive jump-serves. But neither player allowed the setbacks to get them down.
"That [missed serve] was frustrating," Chisholm said. "But I knew that as long as I kept passing and setting, my teammates would come through."
Chisholm is too young for Dale Carnegie or Norman Vincent Peale, but the charismatic leader does know the power of positive thinking.
"Every time the ball came to me, I just knew it was going to be a perfect pass to get the ball to Jenny, so she could set it, and so Tina could pound it."
Coach Arnold told her team to stay patient and focuse on one point at a time.
"She told us to keep playing our game," Whisenhunt said. "Keep [the momentum] on our side, and keep playing offensively."
With the score deadlocked at 24, the air in the gym was ionized
Neufeld serves, (Trinity returns). Chisholm digs, Whisenhunt sets, and Frick attacks (Trinity returns again!). Chisholm digs, Whisenhunt sets, Frick attacks (Trinity returns again!). Jenesa Klose digs, Whisenhunt sets, Frick kills!
Hillsboro 25, Trinity 24!
Neufeld felt the pressure of the moment, but relied on her trusted self-talk routine:
"Over and in, over and in," she said to herself; "Don't look at the score, just do what you have to do."
With the crowd at its crescendo, serves as if she were alone in the gym
(Trinity returns). Neufeld digs, Whisenhunt sets, Frick attacks! (Trinity returns!). Whisenhunt passes, Frick kills, and the Trojans win!
"It was pretty darned exciting," Arnold said, in the afterglow. "We talked all day long that we were going to play aggressively, that we're not going to play not to lose."
Arnold adding that the tournament had turned out exactly as she'd hoped.
"I wanted to play Trinity," she said. "I wanted to play them in the final because I wanted to play the team which would give us the most competition."
Trinity plays in the tough Heart of America Conference against opponents such as Remington and Moundridge, which defeated Hillsboro on Sept. 30 in the Canton-Galva tournament.
Arnold expected both Remington and Trinity to play their best against the Trojans and they did.
"Everybody wants to knock off the number one seed," Arnold said. "But I told the girls, 'If you want to be the best you've got to beat the best.'"
Arnold added that a coach needs to have athletes who can finish the job and she does. With Chisholm and Frick, a solid team has become a great one.
Chisholm has committed to play volleyball at Kansas State next year, and Frick has committed to Wichita State. Few, if any, teams in the state have two better players.
Frick spends a lot of time in Wichita watching her future team play.
"I think it has given me a more mature attitude about the high school game," Frick said. "You pick up a lot of things watching at that level."
But before moving on to the major college ranks, they have one more goal in high school.
Hillsboro lost to Lyons last year in the sub-state final. Two years ago, the Trojans made it to state, but were eliminated in the first round.
As you might expect from these great competitors, these results didn't sit well.
"We're not done yet," said Frick. "We are going to do something there."
Added Chisholm, "We're definitely not done. Two years ago we embarrassed ourselves at state, this year we are going to make something happen."
