The Andale volleyball team will get to defend its Class 4A state championship next week at the Hutchinson Sports Arena.
Andale hosted a 4A West substate, which included Buhler, El Dorado and Rose Hill, on Saturday.
Andale advanced to the substate championship match with a 25-11, 25-5 victory over El Dorado and had to wait to see Buhler defeat Rose Hill in three sets, 25-23, 18-25, 25-14. Andale needed straight sets to defeat Buhler, 25-15, 25-10.
“I think the goal today was to play to our level,” Andale coach Scott Johnson said. “The motto we used this week was just to ‘Be us.’ We’ve been a little bit hot and cold, and we were on today. That’s the level of play that I want to see going into the state tournament. I told them, ‘That’s a team that can win state.’
“We’re getting more consistent. We are more consistently playing at a high level.”
In the substate championship match, Andale led 12-7 before Buhler rallied off five consecutive points to tie the match at 12. Andale then rallied off nine in a row and finished the set on a 13-3 run. Andale carried that momentum into set two and never looked back.
Andale enters the pool play with a 32-5 record, with pairings to be announced on Sunday. Pool play begins at 10 a.m. Thursday in Hutchinson. The top 2 teams after pool play will advance to bracket play at 9 a.m. Saturday.
