By MATT PIKE
St. Joseph Post
The East Buchanan girls volleyball team fought hard through another five set thriller on Thursday evening at Civic Arena, coming up just short against New Covenant Academy in the MSHSAA Class 2 Girls Volleyball tournament third place game.
In their second trip to the state tournament, the Bulldogs finished fourth place for a second time. Not the finish they hoped for, but still a lot to be proud of after taking two good teams to the limit in each match. Head Coach Ryan Horn says he thinks his team proved they belong here.
"You come out here and you play two five setters against two of the best teams in the state, what more could you ask for out of your girls effort?" Horn tells reporters. "We'd have liked to win and everything, but it would have been really easy to show up today and just fold, and we didn't do that, we fought and just didn't quite get what we wanted but we fought and I think that says a lot about our kids."
After the loss to Hermann, Horn had said his team would need to find the motivation to compete in the third place match, and in the first set that motivation showed, East Buchanan battling from behind to take a 19-16 lead before the first timeout was ever called. Out timeout two more points were scored by the Bulldogs, prompting another timeout, this time by the Lady Warriors, before East Buchanan went on to win set one 25-22.
New Covenant Academy breezed through the second set, only allowing East Buchanan to tie things up briefly at one for a moment before pulling away 8-3 and forcing a timeout. After the break, the Lady Warriors extended the lead to 19-9 before another timeout, going on to take the second set 25-16.
In the third set, the Bulldogs started out in control, going up 6-2 before a timeout by New Covenant Academy. The Lady Warriors used the break to their advantage and worked their way back into the set before another timeout, down by one 12-11. Both teams traded blows from there, but New Covenant Academy took the set 25-23, forcing the win or go home set four.
East Buchanan wasn't ready to go home quite yet though, going back and forth all the way with New Covenant Academy through the entire set, neither team ever leading by more than three points, until the Bulldogs sealed victory 25-23, taking things to set five for a second game in a row for them.
In the fifth set, East Buchanan fought back and forth early with the Lady Warriors, pulling ahead eventually by three, but soon after a timeout going back to a tie, where New Covenant Academy took advantage and pulled away to a 15-12 win.
The Bulldogs started out the season not playing to their potential, in fact Horn says they weren't even close, but Horn also says he's never had a group make a total 180 and make volleyball a priority the way this team did.
"It's hard to do, it's hard to admit that you're always not working, in life, in volleyball, in anything, it's hard to admit you're wrong, and then it's even harder to fix it, and they did both those things," Horn explains.
East Buchanan graduates four seniors, but returns a group of 10 players, at least five of which played significant time during the state tournament. Horn says much like the 2022 Final Four did for his seniors this year, he hopes this experience makes those underclassmen hungry.
"We had a pep assembly the other day on Tuesday, and three years ago I said to our eighth graders hey you've got to want one of these too, and here they were as juniors wanting it, right? And doing it," Horn says. "So I said the same thing to this years eighth grade, like this kind of success has to continue to build, and I think it makes kids they see it now they want it, so hopefully everyone is learning from that."
Brooklynn Johnson finished the match with 11 kills. Kamryn Werle added eight. Kendyl Edwards had 61 assists and 23 digs, while Kaylynn Engnes led the team with 49 digs.
East Buchanan finishes the season 26-12-3.
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