Week in Review: Senior Nights and Career Milestone

It's the last week of meaningful matches in terms of seeding purposes with Sub-State for Kansas teams. Missouri teams already know their District playoff schedule so it's more of a farewell tour for Seniors having their Senior Night. Monday's matchups was full of Olathe teams in their Dig Pink matches that was covered in their own post (<a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://prepdig.com/2022/10/sea-of-pink-for-olathe-schools-dig-pink-event/" data-type="URL" data-id="https://prepdig.com/2022/10/sea-of-pink-for-olathe-schools-dig-pink-event/" target="_blank">Dig Pink Olathe</a>).   Lansing hosts Blue Valley Northwest for Senior Night   The Lansing Lions was hopeful to be on the winning side on Tuesday night for Senior Night. The Huskies had a different plan. It was a back and forth series where each respective teams won every other set.   <figure class="wp-block-table"><table><tbody><tr><td></td><td>S1</td><td>S2</td><td>S3</td><td>S4</td><td>S5</td></tr><tr><td>Lansing Lions</td><td>15</td><td>25</td><td>18</td><td>25</td><td>13</td></tr><tr><td>Blue Valley Northwest</td><td>25</td><td>19</td><td>25</td><td>23</td><td>15</td></tr></tbody></table></figure>   Here's a breakdown of each team from my perspective.   Lansing   <figure class="wp-block-image alignright size-medium"><img src="https://prephoops-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/pd/uploads/2022/10/Marshall_LansingSRnight-7639-200x300.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-236132"/></figure>   Lansing's lineups was a little different than the previous times I watched them play. Perhaps it's the change for Senior Night or perhaps it's just a change to get ready for post-season play. Nonetheless we had an amazing match on Tuesday night.   As always, [player_tooltip player_id='120045' first='Skylar' last='Weaver'] is a difference maker for Lansing. Weaver is playing as a 6-rotation outside hitter, nearly averaging a double-double (kills and digs) in her senior season (if we play a traditional 3 out of 5 series). She always go for power shots on the left pin and used her vision of the court to go for roll shots or a deep corner push to zone 1. Naturally play as a libero for club ball, she is being utilized as an outside hitter for her versatility and hitting power. The Lions' Captain did it all on Senior Night in terms of statistical categories and even got a pancake to get the team fired up on the play! Weaver is one of the best uncommitted 2023 players that I know of. It's just a matter of time until Weaver find the right school.   It's safe to say that [player_tooltip player_id='119810' first='Anna' last='Laincz'] has found her new home on being an outside hitter. Laincz was hitting bombs with her lengthy frame that found holes on the defense. Speaking of frame, the 5'10" junior plays bigger than her stated height due to her jumping ability on the ball and blocking mechanics.   Junior Tabor Scanlon has been flying under the radar as the new Lansing 5-1 setter whom replaced <a href="https://prepdig.com/player/caitlin-bishop/" data-type="players" data-id="123106">Caitlin Bishop</a> (playing for Division I University of Missouri - St Louis). The Lions' high level offense goes through Scanlon and she's been fantastic in setting up her hitters for success. She's good in reversing the flow for the Lions offense and mixing up matchup for her hitters.   <figure class="wp-block-image alignleft size-medium"><img src="https://prephoops-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/pd/uploads/2022/10/Marshall_LansingSRnight-7771-200x300.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-236155"/></figure>   Lansing has been switching libero this season and on Tuesday, senior Jessi Ritchhart dons the jersey. Ritchhart played aggressively on serve-receive and on defense. She had a great diving play to save the ball on the ten-foot line coming off from middle back that gets the Lions going on the fifth set. Her 30 receptions and 16 digs on the night are both team high   Blue Valley Northwest   The Huskies spoiled Senior Night behind [player_tooltip player_id='222086' first='Morgan' last='Sears']' 17-kill performance while hitting a blazing 0.438! It's difficult not to include Sears since I've mentioned her before but it's deservingly so as the Huskies leading hitter. New to our list is senior outside hitter [player_tooltip player_id='152171' first='Avery' last='Ahlers']. Ahlers been on our radar and just missed being a game changer for my weekly write-ups behind Sears and [player_tooltip player_id='221225' first='Lainie' last='Douglas']. She's been on fire on the outside, hitting aggressively when she sees the open hole and likes to switch it up with her 2-handed shot to zone 4 when she gets in trouble. Ahlers ended the night with 13 kills and 2 blocks.   <figure class="wp-block-image alignleft size-medium"><img src="https://prephoops-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/pd/uploads/2022/10/Marshall_LansingSRnight-7933-2-200x300.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-236154"/></figure>   The defensive side of Blue Valley Northwest is in good hands in senior libero [player_tooltip player_id='122202' first='Alayna' last='Pearson']. The Texas A&M commit was the dig leader on the night with 24 digs. Not seen on the stats sheet is how she got those digs. Pearson's impeccable read on the ball led to her precision passing, both on defense and serve receive. Her quiet shuffle movement to the ball makes her balanced on contact making her control the ball with ease. Teams refused to serve to her but the Huskies had other defenders to cover the backcourt in sophomore [player_tooltip player_id='219709' first='Summer' last='Anderson'] and junior [player_tooltip player_id='152834' first='Remi' last='Nuss']. The two of them combined for 59 receptions to Pearson's 15. Anderson added 21 digs while Nuss complimented the defense with 12 digs on her own.   While we know that [player_tooltip player_id='219710' first='Marly' last='Burbach'] is the main setting option for Blue Valley Northwest, junior [player_tooltip player_id='152837' first='Lauren' last='Croom'] has been in the mix to compliment Burbach's ability to hit in right front. Burbach led the team with 30 assists while Croom added 16 helpers. Croom has a tough serve that gets Lansing out-of-system and led the team with 25 serves while Burbach had 22. Croom's ability to set tempo balls to the pins as well as the middle has opened up more options for Blue Valley Northwest as of lately. One thing is for sure, do not sleep on them in the post-season!   Liberty's Senior Night ends with an amazing milestone   Liberty has the best introduction for their volleyball program (at least the one I've been to). It was no different on Senior Night as the Bluejays hosted the Falcons. After they announced the visiting team, they turned off the lights to announce the starting lineups for the home team. In short, the Bluejays took care of business on Thursday evening, sweeping the Staley Falcons with scores of 25-13, 25-16, 25-12.   <figure class="wp-block-image alignleft size-medium"><img src="https://prephoops-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/pd/uploads/2022/10/68D0269B-BAF1-40BB-A237-BCABCA98F9AA-200x300.jpeg" alt="" class="wp-image-236176"/></figure>   It was just another day in the office for senior setter [player_tooltip player_id='99216' first='Ashley' last='Mullen'] who averaged 11 assists per set! Mullen utilized all of her hitters and respectively so, all her senior hitters. Senior opposite [player_tooltip player_id='102558' first='Grace' last='Toney'] had some great swings on the right side and recorded 5 kills, digging 3 balls and had a team-high 2 aces on 16 serves. [player_tooltip player_id='152129' first='Jocelyn' last='Renfro'] joined the party with 6 kills while adding a team-high 11 digs and 15 serve receptions. [player_tooltip player_id='152138' first='Phoenix' last='St. Louis'] complimented the defensive end with 7 digs and served 2 aces. The offensive firepower went through Kansas commit Aisha Aiono with 10 kills on 0.529 hitting for the night.   <figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img src="https://prephoops-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/pd/uploads/2022/10/2E8A0A44-4523-4B42-A876-B2E4298A2054.jpeg" alt="" class="wp-image-236178"/></figure>   The icing on the cake was when senior [player_tooltip player_id='99215' first='Brooklyn' last='Young'] recorded her 300th career block to become Liberty all-time season and career block leader! Young eclipsed the mark at the start of the third set of the match. Young was not done for the night as she ended the evening with 11 kills on a 0.600 hitting mark!   Liberty ended the regular season as the 2022 Silver Division, Greater Kansas City Suburban Conference Champions with an undefeated conference record! Liberty is set to host Oak Park in the quarterfinals of Class 5, District 8 playoff match on Thursday, October 20th at 5:00 PM CST.   Post-Season Thoughts   Kansas teams are awaiting their Substate fate to be released this week. Most teams can guesstimate their position and which Sub-State they will be in. As mentioned earlier, Missouri's district playoff schedule is out. We're still unsure how the best 2 teams in Liberty and Liberty North may play each other in the Finals of Class 5, District 8 to go to Cape Girardeau.   Big debate is still looming behind the scenes on how strength of schedule is not affecting teams on the Kansas side and just relying on wins and loses.   <hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"/>   Did we miss someone we should be aware of? Please email PrepDigMarshall@gmail.com or Twitter <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="http://www.x.com/prepdigmarshall" target="_blank">@PrepDigMarshall </a>with your inquiries!

It's the last week of meaningful matches in terms of seeding purposes with Sub-State for Kansas teams. Missouri teams already know their District playoff schedule so it's more of a farewell tour for Seniors having their Senior Night. Monday's matchups was full of Olathe teams in their Dig Pink matches that was covered in their own post (Dig Pink Olathe).