PARTY LIKE 1989: Cubs to state; end 27-year drought

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Sports

October 24, 2016 - 12:00 AM

ARMA — Well, we’ve seen it before, but just not in the lifetime of this sportswriter or any member of the 2016 state-bound Humboldt Cubs volleyball team.
In 1989, the second-seeded Cubs upset Southeast (Cherokee) in the sub-state final to advance to the state volleyball tournament.
It took 27 years to repeat the feat, but on Saturday afternoon the Cubs traveled to Arma  as the two-seed and defeated Southeast in the sub-state championship to advance to their first state tournament since 1989.
“I am so excited,” Humboldt senior Annalise Whitcomb said. “I’m so proud of our whole team. We gave it our all, all day long and this is a great way to end my senior year.”
This year’s Cubs decided to make it a bit more exciting for their fans that made the trek to Arma.
“We gave it our all and gave it our heart and there is nothing I would ask to end it any differently,” Whitcomb said. “It is such an exciting feeling to know that everything we have put in for the last four years is worth it.”
While the 1989 Cubs defeated Southeast in straight sets, these Cubs went three sets with the Lancers.
“With my team, I knew we could do it,” Humboldt senior Tilar Wells said. “I wasn’t going to stop until we left it all on the court.”
In the third set, Humboldt got rolling with Whitcomb on the serve.
“I had to put away how frustrated I was with myself from the second set and I had to be a leader and I had to pick everyone up,” Whitcomb said.
Whitcomb gave the Cubs a 6-0 lead to begin the set as  sophomores Kaylie Johnson and Aricah McCall each recorded kills and McCall added a big block to build the quick lead.
“That was a great start,” Wells said. “I couldn’t ask for a better team.”
The Lancers rallied quickly and cut the Cub lead to 7-6, but the Cubs answered right back and built the lead back up to 12-7 after a block by Sydney Houk and Whitcomb.
Houk and Whitcomb each got kills to send the lead to 14-8.
With Wells serving, Humboldt’s lead grew to 19-9.
“I was pretty calm, but I was just glad I was able to get it over and help my team,” Wells said.
A Whitcomb kill gave the team a 22-10 lead and from there, the Cubs exchanged points with the Lancers until the scoreboard read 25-13 and the Cub celebration began.
“I am super proud,” Humboldt coach Terry Meadows said. “They have never once given up. They have lost some tough matches, but they’ve worked really hard and we were able to win those tough matches today. They always give 100 percent and today, they showed it again.”
For Meadows, a huge amount of the credit for getting the team back to state goes to the team’s three seniors. Kira McReynolds, Whitcomb and Wells each orchestrated Cub offensive runs from the service line to help seal the game.
“We rely heavily on all three of our seniors,” Meadows said. “Kira serves for us and always does a great job and Tilar came up big with a great serving run.”
They won the first 25-12 and lost the second 25-17 to set the stage for the third set.
Whitcomb finished the deciding match  with 27 assists and seven kills as she factored in on all but three Cub kills.
McCall led the team in kills, digs and aces with 10 kills, eight digs and three aces.
Wells also had a great defensive performance with six digs.
Lizzie Myers and Houk were forces at the net. Houk had seven kills and a pair of blocks and Myers had six kills and two blocks.
To get to the title match, Humboldt had to exercise some demons from earlier this season, more specifically some Red Devils from Erie.
Erie defeated the Cubs earlier this season, but that didn’t scare Humboldt as they were able to top the Red Devils in three sets.
“We knew we had to get past Erie, because they had beaten us earlier this season,” Whitcomb said. “So that was just a match that we knew we’d have to dig in and go.”
The Cubs lost the first set 25-21, but rallied to keep the season alive and win the second set 28-26 behind some clutch serving from McReynolds.
They made sure they didn’t sweat the third set as McCall had the final kill to beat the Red Devils 25-16 and advance the Cubs into the final.
Houk led the team with 11 kills in the match and McCall added nine. McCall also had four kills and six digs to lead the team in both categories. Whitcomb had 27 assists.
Wells led the team with seven kills in a 25-15, 25-11 straight-set victory over Cherryvale in the first round.
Whitcomb finished with 20 kills and she and McReynolds each had four aces. McCall and Myers each added five kills.

STATE SCHEDULE
Humboldt is the eight-seed at the state tournament in Emporia and will begin pool-play against top-seeded Hays-TMP Marian at 3:30 p.m., on Friday.
They will play fourth-seeded Silver Lake at 6:30 p.m., and fifth-seeded Hesston at 7:30.
The top two teams from the pool advance to Saturday’s bracket play.

KLINE STATE-BOUND
Humboldt senior Joe Kline will be headed to the 3A state cross country meet after finishing fourth out of 94 runners in the 3A Regional 13 cross country meet in Council Grove.
Kline ran a 17:29.6 to take fourth and was edged out by just a tenth of a second for third.
The 3A state meet is in Lawrence at the Rim Rock course. The 3A boys will run at 10 a.m., on Saturday.
Kline will be looking for redemption on the Rim Rock course where he finished with a 18:26 earlier this season after being pushed off the course and partly down a hill earlier this year.

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