By Fred Solis
The Hutchinson Tribune
HUTCHINSON—The Andale High School volleyball team was just five points away from bringing home a second consecutive 4A state championship last Saturday in Hutchinson as the Indians battled the Bishop Miege Stags to 20-25 in the decisive third set before falling in the title match.
“Five points was the difference between first and second,” Andale Coach Scott Johnson said. “We did not play our best in the first set (a 21-25 loss), so I really am happy with how they responded to Set 2 (a 25-19 win).
“And then we took a kind of point-for-point throughout Set 3 before they pulled away at the end. I’m proud of them. There’s no shame in second place. But that’s a phenomenal team,” he said in a nod to Bishop Miege.
The No. 2-seeded Indians, who opened the first day with three straight wins in pool play, bested No. 4 Eudora, 2 sets to 1 in the semifinal, before facing No. 7 Bishop Miege for the championship. Andale ended the season 36-6.
The Indians’ only lead in Set 1 of the championship match came early when senior Reagan Winter opened with a kill and the Stags followed up with an error to put Andale up 2-0. But Bishop Miege went on an 8-2 run to take a lead, which is when Andale called their first timeout.
The Indians pulled within 8-10 before the Stags rattled off another run of 7-3 to push their advantage to six points, prompting another Andale timeout.
Bishop Miege was sitting on a 22-14 lead when Andale hit a hot streak and closed the gap to 21-24, forcing the Stags to call for a timeout before closing out the set with a 25-21 win.
The Indians rallied and held the upper hand throughout Set 2 as they turned back Bishop Miege 25-19 to even the match at one set apiece. Senior Abbey McNeal led the way down the stretch scoring five of six straight kills.
The final set was nip and tuck with no more than two points separating the two teams until Bishop Miege’s late kill gave them a 21-18 edge. A 4-2 Stags’ run from there was enough to give Bishop Miege the win.
“At the beginning of the season to now is a completely different team,” Johnson said. “We really competed.
“We loaded the team up with [10] seniors. They’re great players. We kind of were just all in on winning this year because of the number of seniors on the team—just a great group of kids and a great group of friends. It made for a great year,” Johnson added.
The Indians opened the tournament Thursday with back-to-back straight-set victories over Bishop Miege (25-21, 25-17) and McPherson (25-12, 25-9) before vanquishing Paola in three sets (25-12, 23-25, 25-17) to finish the day.
“I think that we did a good job at not giving up no matter what the score was,” Winter said. “One of the games, the score was 17-24, and we fought back to make it 25 to 23. I think this team never gives up, and we gave everyone a run for their money.”
That three-set tussle set the tone for Saturday when Andale also had to work through three sets to get past Eudora in the semifinals. Eudora took the opener 25-21 and Andale fought back for 25-12 and 26-24 victories in Sets 2 and 3 to take the game.
“We were challenged. We were two points away from playing for third place,” Johnson said. “So just the fight to get into that championship game facing some adversity just better prepares you.”
Adversity defined Winter’s career. As a freshman, she bounced between the freshman and varsity teams, but suffered a stress fracture in her back her sophomore year and had to sit out the season.
“I kind of was just a manager and would sit and watch the practices,” she said. “And then junior year, I came back, and we won [the state championship]. Junior year was the first year I kind of started playing for Andale.”
As a middle, and occasional outside hitter, Winter was a potent part of Andale’s offense and a formidable force on defense where she rang up numerous blocks, scoring even more points for the Indians.
“This team like means so, so much because even though I only have played technically two years, I think it’s felt like four because of how much memories and moments are in every single day at practice.
“It’s felt like the full four years, and that’s why I’ll miss it so much – the team, the girls,” she said.
Winter will continue her volleyball career at D-II Washburn University.