Demons win both matches of sub-state tourney, seeded 5th at state

The Dodge City High School Red Demon volleyball team is headed back to the class 6A state tournament. And in the process of winning the team's second-straight sub-state championship Saturday at Maize High School, it also proved something to coach Kate Szymczak that even a 22-12 record over the course of the season could not.
    "We had never come back from a letdown in the second set to win a match," Szymczak said. "I told them go out there and prove me wrong."
    After controlling the first set of Saturday's second round match with the Wichita Northwest Grizzlies and taking it 25-20, the Demons fell behind in the second 12-18 after a 7-1 Grizzly run. Dodge put together a 7-0 run of their own later in the set behind the hitting of sophomore setter A'zlynn Thompson that gave the team its first lead since 5-4 at 23-21.
    But a quick turn of events in large part due to miscommunications and a couple errant hits put Northwest over the top in the set 25-23. For the second time in two weeks, one of the Demons' season-long goals (a berth in the state tournament) hinged on a single set.
    "Before that game, I specifically looked at A'zlynn and said 'You need to step up,'" Szymczak said. "And she rattled off seven aces in that third game."
    Behind Thompson's authoritative jump serve, the Demons scored 11 points in a row after falling behind 0-2. Northwest coach Dianne Popp's timeout after Demon hitter Codi Erlich's putaway that made the score 10-2 seemed too late; the Grizzlies could not mount a comeback in the final set. 
    Northwest got no closer than within eight points of Dodge in the deciding set. Thompson fittingly served out the final three points of the match in the set she dominated from the beginning.
    The score of the third set was 25-14.
    "She puts topspin on her serve, and it's powerful to begin with," said Szymczak. "But when she changes it up, it's just a difficult serve to return."
    It's a dangerous serve as well. On two occasions, Thompson hit the ball so hard, defending players didn't have their hands up in time and were beaned by  the Dodge sophomore's hit.
    Grizzly defensive specialist Nikki Brown took a serve off the chin to begin the second set. And Thompson, after deflecting a hit from a Wichita South attacker in the Demons' first-round match, took out Titan libero Caela Murray with a volleyball to the dome to end that match as well.
    The Demons beat the South Titans 25-7, 25-15 in the opening round. The Grizzlies got into the championship match by beating the Garden City Buffaloes 25-15, 25-21.
    Dodge City is the 5 seed in the state tournament, which will be played Friday and Saturday at the Kansas Expocentre      in Topeka. The Demons (24-12) will face the Blue Valley West (Overland Park) Jaguars (28-8) in their first match of pool play at 9:30 a.m. Friday.
    The top four teams from the two four-team pools will advance to the state semi-finals, which are scheduled for 10 a.m. Saturday.