Sub-state is just around the corner and the Andale Volleyball team is heating up at just the right time. With a tournament win in Goddard last Saturday their record improves to 25-8. Andale went 5-0 in the tournament with wins over Haysville Campus(2-0), Goddard(2-0), Andover(2-0), Goddard Eisenhower(2-0), and Cheney(2-1). The Indians will host sub-state again this year after a dominant showing in last years sub-state with 2-0 wins over both Abilene and Chapman. This years season did not start how they would’ve liked to but since losing 3 straight games to Clearwater, Emporia, and Salina Central they have gone 19-3. In this year’s sub-state they will play the 14 seed Buhler(10-22), if they win that game they could either play the 6 seed Clay Center(23-11) or the 11 seed Mulvane(14-13).
The first game in sub-state is against Buhler which will be their 4th matchup against them this year, Andale’s 3-0 against them this year. When I asked Coach Bergkamp about matching up against Buhler so many times this year she had this to say “I think any coach would say that it becomes more and more difficult to play a team over and over which is the case with Buhler. They’re a solid team with a good setter and some good attackers. The key to Saturday for us will be managing our side of things.” Coach B also seems to have a lot of confidence in her team this year saying this “I truly believe this team has all the pieces we need to be successful at the state tournament and make a run for the state championship. The thing that will hold them back is their ability to play for each other instead of themselves. On Saturday at the Goddard tournament we clearly demonstrated that we can compete against anyone that’s a top team especially in bigger classifications so ultimately we have to believe that we can get the job done.” Bergkamp also commented on the opportunity to improve in practice this week, “Typically in practice the week of sub-state we focus on 6 v 6 drills and fix things that will help us manage the game better. We still do a lot of passing and serving as that’s a main component in winning matches in the game of volleyball.” They really seem to be working as hard as possible for the chance to play in the sate playoffs for the 6th year in a row.
The first game of Sub-State will be at 2 pm on Saturday, October 21st in the main gym. Come out and represent the black and gold.
