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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 fourth straight week.
Silver Lake volleyball is ranked No. 1 in the KVA Class 3A state rankings for the fourth straight week. [File photo/TSN]
Silver Lake was 22-1 at the time of the rankngs, with the Eagles' lone loss coming against 5A Shawnee Heights.
Hayden (14-5) is ranked No. 3 in 4A while Rossville (14-6) is ranked fifth in 2A while Washburn Rural (9-4) is No. 6-ranked in 6A.
Kansas Volleyball Association State Rankings
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By TODD FERTIG
TopSports.news
The Shawnee Heights soccer team took another step toward accomplishing its goals with a 3-0 defeat of Seaman at Bettis Family Sports Complex Tuesday.
Shawnee Heights senior Jose Curvelo-Montenegro (20) scores one of his two goals in Tuesday's 3-0 UKC win over Seaman. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]
Shawnee Heights senior Jose Curvelo-Montenegro (20) is congratulated after scoring a goal in Tuesday's 3-0 UKC win over Seaman. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]
Since suffering a loss to Washburn Rural in the season opener, the T-Birds have reeled off an eight-game win streak that finds them at the top of the Class 5A standings.
Senior Jose Curvelo-Montenegro received a pass from Camden Granado to punch home the first score of the night 15 minutes into the contest.
Curvelo-Montenegro added an insurance goal just two minutes into the second period on an assist from Sheldon Pokphanh. The T-Birds got a third tally on a corner kick by Thomas Aragon that Nick Prater put in the net.
“I was glad to get two goals after feeling like I’ve been trying. I finally had it,” Curvelo-Montenegro said. “I hope to keep scoring to help the team.”
Coach Nic Simons said Curvelo-Montenegro stepped up when the team needed another scorer to emerge.
“What I think is great about our team is, tonight Jose was able to step in and fill a role when we were having a tough night at the office for some of our guys that do a lot of our scoring,” Simons said. “Jose has been knocking at the door. He’s had a goal here, a goal there, but I think this was the kind of game he needed to gain confidence.
“Jose is a guy that is a little bit flashy. He can get into the minds of the opposing team. Teams have to think about him, and that’s one more weapon that makes us really dangerous this season.”
Shawnee Heights has claimed every United Kansas Conference championship but one since it joined the league. It can add another trophy to the case Thursday with a win at Leavenworth. Simons said winning Thursday will also keep the T-Birds in position for the top seed come playoff time.
“Right now, we’re atop the rankings of the 5A East, which has been our goal,” Simons said. “We want to host all the way to state. There are a lot of good teams out there and we want to think of ourselves as one of those upper-echelon-type teams.”
“It’s great to be 8-1,” Curvelo-Montenegro said. “I’m really happy with this win. We want to keep moving forward and get high up in the rankings.”
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By CHARLES SPURLOCK
Special to TopSports.news
On Tuesday evening, three teams from the United Kansas Conference competed in a volleyball triangular hosted by Shawnee Heights.
The T-Birds dominated the action, sweeping Kansas City-Turner and Piper in straight sets.
Shawnee Heights senior Avery Willey goes up for a kill in Tuesday's UKC volleyball sweep over KC-Turner and Piper. [File photo/TSN]
In the opening match, Shawnee Heights played the Turner Bears.
Following an opening set where Shawnee Heights jumped out to an early lead and extended it throughout the set, the Thunderbirds jumped out to another early 7-0 lead in second set, thanks to three attacks from senior Avery Willey.
After Turner broke through on the scoreboard, Heights extended its lead to 12-1, causing the Bears to take their first timeout.
The T-birds only allowed four more points in the set, to finish the dominating sweep, 25-9, 25-5.
In the final match of the evening, Shawnee Heights played the Piper Pirates.
The start of the match saw the T-birds exhibit dominance at the net from senior Brooke McCabe and junior Brooklyn Hummer with blocks and attacks, giving Heights an early 6-0 lead.
Piper battled back and trailed just 8-7 when T-Bird coach Sami Kearney called the T-birds first timeout.
“We are a really good team, but sometimes we can sometimes play to our opponent,” Kearney said.
Following a 9-5 run by Heights, Piper called their final timeout, trailing 17-12. The teams traded points for the remainder of the set, with Shawnee Heights winning, 25-17.
The second set went back and forth with neither team having a lead larger than two points until Willey had a service winner, giving Heights the lead at 14-11.
Willey commented about her team’s start in both matches.
“I thought we started off slow, but we picked it up and found our rhythm,” she said.
Piper cut the lead to 16-15, but Heights scored the final nine points -- with eight coming from the serves of senior Addison Gonzalez -- to finish off the match, 25-15.
Shawnee Heights will be back in action on Thursday night, hosting a triangular with Washburn Rural and Blue Valley Northwest.
Match results
Shawnee Heights defeated KC-Turner, 25-9, 25-5; Piper defeated KC-Turner, 25-13, 25-14; Shawnee Heights defeated Piper, 25-17, 25-15
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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Washburn Rural soccer coach Brian Hensyel had several reasons to be concerned entering Tuesday's non-league game against Kapaun Mt. Carmel.
Washburn Rural senior Liam Morrison (24) scored Tuesday's first goal in a 2-0 non-league home win over Kapaun Mt. Carmel. [Photo by Doug Walker/Special to TSN]
Washburn Rural senior Liam Morrison (24) celebrates his goal in Tuesday's 2-0 non-league home win over Kapaun Mt. Carmel. [Photo by Doug Walker/Special to TSN]
First of all, Rural was facing a good Crusader team that had won six straight games.
Secondly, the Junior Blues were coming off a road trip to Iowa, where they played three hotly-contested games in three days.
And Washburn Rural would also face Kapaun without two of its top players, senior leading scorer Dylan Willingham and juior Brodye Kocher-Munoz.
But Rural put all of Hensyel's concerns to rest with one of its best performances of the season en route to a 2-0 shutout over the Crusaders at McElroy Field.
"This is as good of a win as we've had all season and all of those things add in,'' Hensyel said. "Obviously, we just played Thursday, Friday, Saturday against high-level competition and yesterday was pretty much a non-practice day to be honest. We were just trying to rest up.
"And with Dylan out with his ankle and a guy out with a redcard, you're down your two starting forwards, so we had to play with a more defensive emphasis in the second half. We thought we could score off set plays and we did, so we got the lead and then we were able to be strong defensively and our defense was really good.''
Senior Liam Morrison scored the only goal the Junior Blues would need at the 29:15 mark of the first half off a free kick assist from senior Brandon Hamilton.
Washburn Rural senior Higgins Hawks (21) scored Rural's second goal in Tuesday's 2-0 non-league home win over Kapaun Mt. Carmel. [Photo by Doug Walker/Special to TSN]
Rural, now 8-1-1, added its final goal of the night with 16:38 remaining in the opening half when senior Higgins Hawks scored off an assist from senior Brady Loeffler.
Senior Miles Cook (99) picked up the shutout in goal in Washburn Rural's 2-0 non-league home win over Kapaun Mt. Carmel. [Photo by Doug Walker/Special to TSN]
The Junior Blues were unable to find the back of the net the remainder of the game, but Rural's defense was able to keep 7-3-0 Kapaun off the scoreboard as senior Miles Cook registered the shutout in goal.
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By VINCE LOVERGINE
TopSports.news
Dating back to last season, Hayden has lost 11 straight matches and they’re 0-10 this year.
Joey Gartner's Hayden soccer team fell to 0-10 on Tuesday, but Gartner said the Wildcats continue to make improvement. [File photo/TSN]
After Hayden topped Tonganoxie last season, 6-1, the Chieftains took a 1-0 win Monday at Hayden.
The last five matches entering Monday's match for the Wildcats, they’d only scored one goal and were shut out in four others. For the whole 2025 campaign, they’ve only scored four total goals.
Despite not winning a match so far, Hayden first-year coach Joey Gartner said the morale of the team is solid.
“We’ve all been keeping our heads up,” Gartner said. “I’ve been telling them that we’re improving every game … by the end of the season we’ll see that improvement and get better every game. The captains have been uplifting, saying, ‘Let’s go, keep pushing,’ and when we’re down 1-0, trying to fight back and get a goal or two to win the game… we all have that mindset to get back into the game, get back into the season, score some goals and get some wins.”
It was a slow moving game in the first half, but Tonganoxie would strike for the match's only goal, as Jameson Breitzman scored inside the box, beating Hayden’s goalkeeper short side with 16:53 left in the half.
The Wildcats had some decent looks at the net but couldn’t muster much offense. Senior Roman Ziegler almost knotted the match at 1-1 for Hayden with 12 minutes to play. Freshman goalkeeper Ivan Franco for the Chieftains made a diving save to his right to keep it at that 1-nil score.
