adis_cam (Adeline Stuhlsatz)

This year there are several changes to the Garden Plain Lady Owls postseason play. It ranges from harder competition to a whole new format of play.
The biggest change is that Garden Plain has moved up to 3A. They are tied for the smallest school in 3A with 174 students. The largest school in 2A (Oskaloosa HS) also has 174 people, making there a need for a tie breaker. The tie is broken based on the previous year’s enrollment count. This would mean last year Garden Plain had more people in their school then Oskaloosa did.
Now that you know Garden Plain moved up to 3A, but what does that entail competition wise? To start off, in their regionals they could potentially face Cheney (who they are 1-1 with on the season), Hesston (they lost to in 3 sets of 5), Haven (they lost in 3 of 3 sets), and several other other teams who will be good competition for our Lady Owls. Coach Clark on the move to 3A said, “It doesn’t bother me. The biggest difference is in 2A you would probably get an easier first round. With my experience in 3A most every round is pretty challenging. Sometimes you have really good games all in a row.”
Claire Rolfs, a senior on the GPHS volleyball team has similar thoughts “I’m not surprised [about the move to 3A], there are definitely a lot more good teams in 3A, but 2A still has some of the best teams. It’ll make our substates harder but I think they are pretty similar when it comes to volleyball.” All in all they seem ready for the competition and the postseason that lies ahead.
The format has also been a big change in this year’s postseason play. Regionals is now the first step and it will take place on Monday, October 21. There are 4 regions and within each of those regions there are four regionals that will take place. Each region will be seeded 1-16 and that will determine which teams will play at which regionals. Seeding for those regionals will take place on Sunday, October 13.
Regionals will be the same format as a normal quad. Which is where four teams all play each other. In regionals, the top two teams will advance to sub-state. “I like that the first round isn’t one and done. So you have the quad night with two people advancing. Because if you have one bad match there is no cure for that in the old format,” Clark said in response when asked about regionals.
The top two teams will be determined by how many teams they beat in regionals, if that is tied it will go to how many sets they won and lost in regionals, and if there is another tie it will go down to how many points they scored. So in regionals every single point matters. Clark said “We are watching [the regional seeding] everyday. It’s important to be prepared and understand tiebreakers and points matter.”
Sub-state will be the following Saturday, October 26, and will be composed of four teams. This is a bracket, so once you lose you are done. There will be two sub-states per region, therefore there will be two teams per region going to state. State will be the following Friday and Saturday, November 1 and 2, which will be run as normal. However, because of the move to 3A it will now be hosted in Hutchinson, instead of Dodge City. Rolfs said, “I won’t miss the drive to Dodge, but Hutchinson isn’t as exciting as going further away. However, Hutchinson will have its perks.” Clark however feels good about the change saying it will “improve fanbase” and that “more people are willing to drive to Hutch then to Dodge.”
So far this season the Garden Plain Lady Owls are 19-8 this season. Clark says they have been “Definitely trending upward.” and that “We had a slow start and there are matches we wish we had back. We are in a really good position and ready to surprise people.” They are ranked 3rd in their league and 17th in 3A.
Many of their losses have been close games often taken to 3 sets. Rolfs says, “I think the biggest challenge our team is gonna face is tight matches with good teams. We compete really well but sometimes the two points don’t always end in your favor no matter how hard you try.”
The Lady Owls are ready to fight hard for the remainder of their season, and ready to take on any challenging teams they might have to face in the postseason. Clark says the biggest challenges the team will face is “Understanding how good we are and being confident in that goodness. Not letting confidence waver.” All in all, the Garden Plain Lady Owls are ready for a challenging and exciting postseason, and ready to take anything that comes their way head on.