Blue Valley West wins Kansas 6A volleyball title
Nine straight points early in the second set gave No. 2 seed Blue Valley West the cushion it needed to beat Blue Valley Northwest 27-25, 25-12 in the Kansas 6A championship volleyball match Saturday at the Kansas Expocentre.
“It was huge for us,” BV West coach Jessica Kopp said. “I told my girls all season that volleyball is a game of runs, and if you can limit the other team and go on your own, you are going to win and that is exactly what they did in the second set. I was so proud of them.”
The second-set run was significant for the Jaguars, who finished the year 40-4. BV Northwest, which entered state tournament as the No. 7 seed, had found plenty of success in the second set in earlier matches.
Twice on Friday the Huskies lost the first set and won the next two. They found that same magic in the semifinals against No. 1 seed Olathe Northwest. Blue Valley Northwest lost the first set and then roared back for a stunning 22-25, 25-19, 25-23 victory. It was only the second loss in 42 matches for Olathe Northwest.
BV West was determined not to give the Huskies any hope after a hard fought battle in the first game.
“We really had to flip our switches on because we knew they were going to come back fighting, so we really buckled down and it worked,” said BV West senior hitter Emily Engelken.
The Jaguars turned a 5-5 tie into a 14-5 lead and cruised to their second state volleyball title in school history. They won the 5A title in 2005.
“We fought so hard this season,” said junior Peyton Uhlenhake said. “It is a great feeling to come out here and help our seniors actually win this. Coach Kopp has been such a large part of all of the things we have done this season. We are so grateful to be where we are at.”
The Jaguars played nearly flawless in the second set. Junior Madison Lilley consistently set up Uhlenhake and Engelken for kills and both players put them away.
“Madison is insanely good,” Uhlenhake said. “I am blessed to have her as my setter. She is a huge key to our offense.”
Simply put, BV West played consistently well throughout the state tournament. The Jaguars didn’t drop a set, and the two different times BV Northwest pushed BV West in the first set, the Jaguars found a way to win.
On Friday in pool play, Blue Valley West beat Blue Valley Northwest 27-25, 25-14.
“This is the best we played all year, without a doubt,” Kopp said. “I honestly think the pool we were in yesterday was good for us because it was tougher. We had to come out and play hard from the get go and they were ready the entire time and that’s hard to do in volleyball.”
In Saturday’s semifinal match, BV West beat BV North 25-9, 25-18.
Saturday turned into a great day for the Blue Valley school district. BV North beat Olathe Northwest in the third-place match.
“EKL (East Kansas League) is very tough,” Engelken said. “It stinks we got second. I’m not over that yet, but it got us ready.”
This story was originally published October 31, 2015 at 9:28 PM with the headline "Blue Valley West wins Kansas 6A volleyball title."