Volleyball team wins own tournament
Playing from 9 a.m. until 5:30 p.m. would make anyone tired, but the Goessel High School volleyball team went 4-1 in its own tournament and ended up winning first place. Four of the five matches went three games, but the Bluebirds played more focused than they had earlier in the year.
Goessel played in the early match against Wichita Independent and won 25-16, 25-13. In both of these games, Goessel got an early lead and was able to build on it.
Goessel lost to South Haven 21-25, 25-23, 23-25. Early mistakes in game one allowed the Cardinals to get a large lead and the Bluebirds could not score enough points in a row to pull out a win. Goessel hung on in game two and squeaked out a two-point victory. In game three, South Haven began to tip the ball over the long arms of Goessel's blockers, and scored several points in a row to give them the momentum to finish ahead.
Against Wichita Collegiate, the Bluebirds got an early lead and kept it till the end of the game one. Goessel finished the match dominating play, winning in three games 25-19, 21-25, 25-10.
The only team at the tournament from the HOA league was Sedgwick. Goessel managed to win in three games again. They dominated game one, made too many mistakes in game two, and then won a very close game in the third to take the match 25-16, 19-25 and 25-21.
The Dragons from Halstead were Goessel's last match of the day. All three games were extremely competitive with the Bluebirds winning 23-25, 26-24, 25-21.
After the game with Halstead, the Bluebird team had to wait for the results from the South Haven-Collegiate game to determine its final finish in the tournament. Sedgwick was tied with Goessel 4-1 in matches won, but Collegiate's win over South Haven handed the first place position to the Bluebirds.
On Tuesday the Bluebirds began their first round of Heart of America league play. Those games went only two games each as the Bluebirds won one and lost two. Goessel lost to Inman 16-25, 21-25, defeated Canton-Galva 25-17, 25-8 and then lost to Hutchinson Trinity 17-25, 17-25.
The Bluebird team is now 6-5 overall and 1-2 in the league. Goessel played at Berean on Tuesday with Berean and Peabody and will travel to Tescott for an invitational tournament on Saturday.
