T-Birds, Vikings advance in 5A

By RICK PETERSON

The Capital-Journal

SALINA --- The Shawnee Heights T-Birds are headed back to the Class 5A state volleyball tournament for the third straight season. This time they're taking their ducks with them.

The T-Birds adopted the toy ducks prior to Saturday's sub-state at Salina Central, displaying them on the bleachers a couple of rows behind their bench.

Whether or not the ducks helped the T-Birds is debatable. After all, Heights was already top-ranked in 5A and heavily favored to win Saturday's sub-state A tournament.

The ducks certainly didn't hurt, however, with the T-Birds dispatching Highland Park, 15-0, 15-0, in the semifinals before winning their sub-state with a 15-3, 15-9 win over Salina Central in the championship match.

"We had to get all our ducks in a row today to play well," cracked Shawnee Heights coach Kerry Kapfer, whose team improved to 37-1. "We're working on that. That's our motif going into the state tournament.

"We had a motivational speaker this week (Dale Burkholder, vice- principal at Heights), and he gave us quite a good lecture on that, so we've adopted that as our theme. They'll be with us (at state)."

Shawnee Heights will be joined at state by Centennial League and city rival Seaman, which knocked off No. 2 seed McPherson later Saturday night in the championship match of sub-state B tournament, 18-16, 15-10.

Seaman, which was seeded No. 3, opened its tournament bid with a 15-11 loss to Newton, but the Vikings bounced back to advance to the finals with 15-5, 15-2 victories.

The Vikings let a 10-2 lead slip away in their first game against McPherson, falling behind 13-11 and 16-15 before rallying for the win.

Seaman fell behind 9-6 in the second game but eventually closed out the match on back-to-back service winners by Angie Loomis.

"I've just been stressing discipline all year long," first-year Seaman coach Craig Mosqueda said of his team, which improved to 25- 14.

"They've come through all year and they did it again tonight. They're tough kids, a tough group of kids."

Seaman is back in the state tournament after a one-year absence.

Shawnee Heights had absolutely no problems with Highland Park in its first match of the day, but Salina Central tested the T-Birds at times, particularly in the second game.

Central, which outlasted Topeka West 13-15, 15-4 in the second seminfal and finished its season 19-12, also led at 8-6 and 9-8, but junior Dani McHenry served six straight points to put the T-Birds in command.

Shawnee Heights and Seaman will open state tournament play Friday at Landon Arena. The 6A state tournament also will be played at Landon.

SUB-STATE A

Semifinals --- Shawnee Heights def. Highland Park, 15-0, 15-0; Salina Central def. Topeka West, 13-15, 15-4, 15-13.

Championship --- Shawnee Heights def. Salina Central, 15-3, 15-9.

SUB-STATE B

Semifinals --- McPherson def. Salina South, 15-8, 15-9; Seaman def. Newton, 11-15, 15-5, 15-12.

Championship --- Seaman def. McPherson, 18-16, 15-10.

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