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Silver Lake No. 1 in KVA Class 3A state volleyball rankings for fifth straight week
By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Four Shawnee County schools continue to earn Top 10 spots in the Kansas Volleyball Association's state rankings released Wednesday, led by Class 3A Silver Lake, which is ranked No. 1 for the fifth straight week.
Silver Lake remains top-ranked in Class 3A, improving to 32-1 on the season. [File photo/TSN]
Coming off the championship in its home tournament last Saturday and a pair of wins on Tuesday, Silver Lake is now 32-1 on the season. The Eagles' lone loss came against 5A Shawnee Heights.
Hayden (19-7) is ranked No. 3 in 4A while Washburn Rural is No. 6 in 6A and 16-4 after winning the Centennial League tournament and going 7-0 last week.
Rossville (19-10) is ranked sixth in 2A.
Kansas Volleyball Association State Rankings
Rural soccer blanks Bishop Carroll 2-0 to improve to 9-1-1
By TODD FERTIG
TopSports.news
The Washburn Rural soccer team has spent most of the last month taking on all comers, inviting challenges wherever it can find them. The Junior Blues defeated Bishop Carroll 2-0 at McElroy Field Tuesday to improve to 9-1-1 before a couple of weeks facing more traditional rivals.
The Junior Blues got goals from Dylan Willingham and Everett Un in the first half, then locked up the opponents for the rest of the night.
Washburn Rural senior Dylan Willingham (19) scored the game's first goal in Tuesday's 2-0 win over Bishop Carroll. [Photo by Doug Walker/Special to TSN]
Sophomore Everett Un scored a goal in Washburn Rural's 2-0 win over Bishop Carroll Tuesday night. [Photo by Doug Walker/Special to TSN]
The victory over Bishop Carroll followed up a win last week against Kapaun Mt. Carmel. Those victories came on the heels of three grueling battles against some top competition at a tournament in Iowa.
“It’s been a tough road the last week and a half,” Junior Blues coach Brian Hensyel said. “We’ve played five games in 12 days, our three games in Iowa and then Kapaun and Carroll are always tough. They’re really well-coached teams, some of the better teams in the Wichita area every year. We knew we were going to have to just play good sound defense, take our chances when we could. To win four and tie one, we’re pretty excited about how we’ve done.”
Junior Brodye Kocher-Munoz had a pair of assists and also had a stint as goalkeeper in Washburn Rural's 2-0 win over Bishop Carroll Tuesday night. [Photo by Doug Walker/Special to TSN]
Recording an assist on both Washburn Rural goals Tuesday was forward Brodye Kocher-Munoz. The junior then provided another assist, this time to starting goalkeeper Miles Cook. Kocher-Munoz switched jerseys, donned the gloves, and defended the Junior Blues’ net for the final several minutes of the game, helping to preserve the shutout.
“I just gotta step up for the guys in any way they need,” Kocher-Munoz said. “It’s not all about scoring. Sometimes you’ve got to give the ball up and give your teammates a shot and celebrate with the team.”
Kocher-Munoz admitted moving to goalkeeper was not in his original plan against the Golden Eagles.
“In practice, sometimes I’ll step in there just for jokes, but I didn’t think I’d be in there tonight,” he said. “Sometimes you just gotta step up for the team.”
Seaman tennis sweeps singles, doubles titles on way to fourth straight UKC championship
By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Of course, Seaman girls tennis coach Jamie Robinson wanted to win Tuesday's United Kansas Conference tournament.
But with Class 5A regional competition just four days away, Robinson also wanted the city-champion Vikings to continue to play well while continuing to build momentum for the Vikings' two biggest tournaments of the season.
Seaman junior Emma Sweeney repeated as the UKC singles champion Tuesday as the Vikings won their fourth straight conference team title. [Photo by Rick Peterson/TSN]
Seaman senior Molly Gorman finished second in UKC singles Tuesday as the Vikings won their fourth straight conference team title. [Photo by Rick Peterson/TSN]
And Robinson felt like his team did just that, finishing one-two in singles and one-three in doubles on the way to its fourth straight UKC title by a 75-65 margin over De Soto at Kossover Tennis Center.
"You want to continue to build and play well and continue to get better,'' Robinson said. "That's one thing we talk about, is trying to get better every day, and we wanted to build momentum going into regionals and I think we did that.''
Seaman's Peyton Henry (left) and Camryn Lux won the doubles title in Tuesday's UKC tournament. [Photo by Rick Peterson/TSN]
Seaman junior Emma Sweeney and senior Molly Gorman advanced to the singles final for the second straight season, with Sweeney taking an 8-0 win for her second straight title while Peyton Henry and Camryn Lux took the doubles title with an 8-4 win over De Soto and Kaylyn Hiebsch and Candace Speer bounced back from a semifinal loss to take an 8-4 win over De Soto in the third-place doubles match.
Topeka West finished fourth as a team, led by a fifth-place doubles finish from seniors Taryn Gilbert and Jordan Felsburg while Shawnee Heights finished eighth.
Seaman, Topeka West, Shawnee Heights and Highland Park will all compete in a Class 5A regional tournament on Saturday at Kossover, vying for state tournament berths.
Seaman won a regional title and posted a third-place finish in 5A last season and Robinson feels like his team is where it needs to be to make another strong postseason run.
"I think we have to be pretty happy where we're at,'' Robinson said. "We have pretty much dominated most of our meets and I think we're peaking at the right time and that's what you want. You want a team to peak right at regionals and go into state with a lot of momentum and that's what I think we're doing.''
UNITED KANSAS CONFERENCE
