SM East seizes control of Sunflower volleyball race

Three of the top five teams in the latest Kansas Volleyball Association rankings met Thursday, and the night’s most important match essentially decided the Sunflower League title.

Host Olathe South and league rival Shawnee Mission East, which dropped from the top spot to No. 4 in the Kansas 6A rankings after a loss last week against Blue Valley North, entered play as the only remaining teams without a blemish in Sunflower League competition.

Starting off the round-robin quad, the Lancers emerged as the last league unbeaten with a 25-22, 25-17 win. It was the first loss of the season for the top-ranked Falcons, who assumed the No. 1 spot in 6A when the rankings were released Wednesday.

“We came into tonight knowing what we were going to get,” SM East senior Lindsey Sauls said. “We knew they’d have a crowd, we’d have a fight on our hands and we’d face a big girl like Kaitlynn Pelger. But we also know kind of how she plays, so we had a game plan.”

The Lancers’ winning strategy was predicated entirely on their serving.

“Our game plan was to serve hard and take them out of their rotation,” senior Alex Dahlgren said. “We also tried to place our free balls short, forcing (Pelger) to pass and not allowing her to get in position to hit.”

The Lancers’ plan largely succeeded in neutralizing Pelger, a powerful senior middle hitter with the ability to take over games, by creating poor Falcons passes.

“We didn’t do that very well last week against Blue Valley North, who beat us in three (games),” SM East coach Scott Dowis said. “But, like I said, I thought we could learn from it and we did. That was a good match to recall when we were working this week on beating a team with a tough middle.”

The end result was fewer opportunities for Pelger to attack the Lancers’ middle, which is the weak point of their defense.

“Our passing forced us to (set other players),” Olathe South coach Ken Talcott said. “Kaitlynn did not get as many touches as she should have.”

Meanwhile, Sauls and fellow senior outside hitter Kareen Schwartze controlled the outside, taking advantage of the Falcons’ defensive weakness, its suspect blocking outside.

The Lancers, who swept their three matches, never led by more than four points but also never trailed during the opening game against the Falcons. Olathe South ran out to a 5-2 lead the second game but wilted over the next 14 points, which saw SM East rally into the lead 13-8.

With SM East ahead 18-14, Dahlgren and sophomore Hayley Hansford had key blocks during a five-point spurt that put the game, and perhaps the Sunflower League championship, out of Olathe South’s reach.

SM East, 15-3, also exacted revenge against fifth-ranked BV North, which beat the Lancers a week earlier during a quad at Olathe Northwest, with a decisive 25-15 win to start the match and a stirring 26-24 comeback victory that polished off the perfect night.

“There definitely was a revenge factor there,” Sauls said. “We wanted that match, too, and we had been preparing hard for them as well. We did a good job taking (Mustangs middle hitter) Chelsea Cook out tonight.”

Olathe South, 20-1, took out its frustration from its sluggish performance in the opener by throttling BV North 25-12, 25-22.

SM South, which also took part in the quad, lost to BV North 25-14, 25-21, SM East 25-18, 25-11 and to Olathe South 25-12, 25-13.

submitted by TOD PALMER - 2009-10-02 00:32:02

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