‘Underestimated’ Lansing volleyball aims for state title
LANSING, Kan. (BVM) — When a high school volleyball team graduates as much talent as Lansing did last year, it’s normal for that team’s expectations to be lowered at least somewhat for the following season.
That has never been the case for the Lions under first-year head coach Lindsay Zych.
“We didn’t change expectations,” Zych said. “We kind of went into the season with a chip on our shoulder and the mentality that we have absolutely nothing to lose. We still set our same goal.”
That goal was to return to state even after graduating six seniors, including the top four attackers from last year’s squad which placed third in Class 5A. And with the postseason set to begin this weekend, the Lions (23-1) couldn’t be in much better shape despite having a much younger team than a year ago. MaxPreps ranks Lansing No. 3 among all Kansas high school volleyball teams and the Lions’ only loss of the season came Tuesday against Blue Valley West, the No. 3-ranked team in 6A.
“People underestimated us and thought we wouldn’t be as strong simply because of the personnel we graduated last year,” Zych said. “We just have a solid 12 kids that will do anything it takes to score a point.”
The Lions are led by a strong group of juniors including Olivia Mae Van Der Werff who leads the team in kills and Iyannah Jackson who’s second in kills and first in blocks. Lansing also has several underclassmen who are making big impacts all-around, perhaps none bigger than sophomore Skylar Weaver, a converted libero/defensive specialist who’s recorded the second-most digs while also racking up the third-most kills as the Lions’ six-rotation outside hitter.
“She’s been so steady, so consistent, so stellar, unbelievable,” Zych said. “She’s made such a huge jump as an extremely experienced player coming into a position that’s honestly pretty uncomfortable for her and playing some in extremely high-level games.”
Lansing will be playing in several more high-level games from here on out, first in sub-state competition, which takes place Saturday, and then likely into next week’s state tournament. If the Lions make it through to the state semifinals as they did last year, they’ll likely have to contend with at least one of the two teams in the state that are ranked ahead of them: No. 1 Aquinas and No. 2 St. James. Defending state champion Aquinas ended Lansing’s title hopes a year ago in the state semifinals.
“Our program is always striving to play St. James and Aquinas because they’re always the top two in 5A year after year,” Zych said. “We’ve really grown a huge rivalry with them when it comes to the end of the season. We’re always checking if we’re going to be with them for sub-state and if we’re not with them for sub-state we know we’re going to see them at state so we’re going to do whatever we can to prepare.”
It’s been 18 years since Lansing has brought home a state title. Considering how dominant the Lions have been up to this point, it would be hard to argue that they don’t have the potential to end that drought this season. And even if they don’t do it this year, they might have as good of a shot to make another run next season because they will only graduate two players from this year’s squad.
But the Lions have had their sights set on a championship since the end of last year. And in a season where they might’ve been overlooked and exceeded outside expectations, it’s clear that they’re not content with waiting for their next shot.
“We knew what we wanted to accomplish and hopefully we can get there and do that this year,” Zych said. “The demeanor of our girls and the mentality of our program in the gym is like, ‘no fear, nothing to lose, why not just go play like it’s going to be our last game?’ … That’s going to continue to be our mentality as we head down the stretch of our season.”
