On October 5th, 2019 the EMS volleyball team played in a league tournament in Anthony, Kansas.  The EMS volleyball team woke up at 5:30-6:00 a.m to drive about two hours to Anthony Kansas. These were the last games of the season. The lady Spartans wanted to make this game the best one yet and they did!

Washburn Middle School was the first team they had to play.  Washburn Middle School had one of the best regular-season records.  I could tell EMS was a little nervous but they were still confident that they would do well! Chloe Fischer a player on the EMS volleyball team said, “I was excited and nervous most of our games.” Their coach told them before they played the game to just have fun and if you miss a point just move on to the next play. They got into their spots on the court and were down and ready to start. The first set went well but Washburn Middle School won. EMSplayed the next set and won by two points! They were so proud of themselves, even though they didn’t win the game they still won a set and that was more than some of them expected. They moved to the other side of the gym to play their next team and they were pretty confident about this game. The team they were playing was not as good as Washburn, but they were still good and they thought that because they won a set against one of the best teams in the league so they thought they could win this game, but that changed.

They were all ready and warmed up to play against Junction City, they started playing Junction City and Junction was winning by a lot. The Lady Spartans didn’t know why they were losing so bad by them but they were. After EMS lost the first set they were pretty bummed but they knew that they still had another set that they could win. EMS was ready to play them again for their second set and they really wanted to win. After they played their second set against them the Lady Spartans lost again. They all were mad at themselves and sad. 

They knew they still had another game and they were ready for real this time. EMS played Eisenhower middle school volleyball team and they knew in their minds they could beat them. The first set EMS played against Eisenhower EMS beat them by a lot of points, the score was 16 to 25. They switched sides on the court and played the second set against Eisenhower. When they played the second set against them EMS lost but only by five or six points, EMS still won the game because they won the first set by so many points.

After they finished playing the games the judges had to decide what teams made the champions league and who didn’t make it. If you make the champions league then you play the top teams from each building and compete for medals and places. Their coach walked over to the judges and the judges told the coach if they made it or not. Their coach walked over to the team and said, we made it to the champions!! The team all screamed and jumped because they made the champions. The team stayed for about an hour to get a snack before the champions started and then three other teams came into the gym and the Spartans knew that was their competition. The three teams they were competing against were Washburn Rural, Anthony, and Seaman. They played Seaman first. A few weeks before the tournament the Spartans played Seaman at home and they beat Seaman when they were undefeated. The lady Spartans gave Seaman their first loss and Seaman got mad. The Spartans knew that they came to beat us. The Spartans were ready to beat them again. Both teams were down and ready and when they heard the whistle blow they knew the game had started. Sadly the Spartans lost but it was a close game. The Spartans played hard though. When the game was finished Seaman went to the other side of the gym to play Washburn Rural. The Spartans stayed on the same side and played Anthony. Everyone knew Anthony was good but the Spartans were not going to give up. The Spartans were still fighting for 3rd place. Coach told the team, “Do you want to walk away with a medal or nothing, it’s your choice.” After their little huddle before the game, you could see in their faces that they wanted to walk away with third place. After thirty minutes of hard playing and sweat, the lady Spartans walked away with 3rd place and a smile on their face. Their coach Balyee Hischmidt told the team, “ I was not surprised because I knew you guys could do that all season long. I was happy you finally got the results you deserved“

The EMS volleyball team went from 7th place in their league to being 3rd place champions. They were so proud of themselves and were so happy! The team spent so much time together and they are going to miss each other but they still have next year. Now they can go back to their families and school and feel proud about the game and say that they were 3rd place champions!