ALTAMONT — Capping off the regular season with a pair of wins on Senior Night, the Labette County Grizzlies defeated Independence and Coffeyville in SEK League volleyball action on Tuesday.
“This gives us a great lead-in to the postseason,” Labette County head coach Leigh Ann Phillips said. “We’ve talked about playing our best volleyball when we get to the postseason. The regular season is a warm-up to get there. Now, we’re playing our best. We’re being pretty mentally strong. This was a good shift for us.”
Labette County opened Tuesday night’s action with a three-set win over the Independence Bulldogs, 2-1 (2522, 12-25, 25-20).
“They just hung in there and believed in each other,” Phillips said. “We saw in the second set that we got down. But in the third set, we got tighter to the net and found our passes. That shift in mental toughness was a big thing for us.”
Stats were unavailable at press time. Despite the win, the Grizzlies showcased vulnerability in a shaky second set.“ We’ve been doing that all season,” Phillips said. “If you can figure it out, let me know. We come out and play somebody really well, then we look like we didn’t just play fantastically. We just have to stay in the same mindset and put somebody away.”
The Grizzlies punctuated the night with a 2-0 (25-18, 25-9) over the Coffeyville Golden Tornado.
“Coffeyville has gotten better throughout the season,” Phillips said. “You can see their middles getting more quality attacks. Their outsides have more quality attacks. We knew we couldn’t take anybody for granted. We have to play hard, whether it’s Chanute or Coffeyville.”
Up next
Labette County wrapped its regular season with a 12-22 record. The Grizzlies, currently the No. 14 seed in the KSHSAA 4A East Sub-State standings at press time, will hit the road for their sub-state tournament next Saturday.
