Contributing writer
Since the beginning of the Wheat State League three years ago, Goessel has won the regular season title each year. And for the third year in a row, the Bluebirds have gone 8-0 in league play.
On Sept. 25, Hope took a lead 3-2 in the first set, but Goessel exploded for 13 consecutive points and won, 25-5. The second set was tied at 16 and again the Bluebirds finished strong winning, 25-19.
Against Wakefield the Bluebirds flew out to a 16-0 lead and won game one, 25-8. In the second set Goessel led, 10-4, and allowed the Bombers to get as close as 12-10 before the Bluebirds closed the match with a 25-14 win. After defeating Hope and Wakefield, the Bluebirds needed to concentrate on preparing for much bigger schools at the Canton-Galva tournament.
Goessel started off Saturday morning in the Galva gym by defeating Central Christian, 25-9 and 25-10. The relatively easy win was a warm-up, as the matches seemed to get tougher as the day wore on. Against Little River, the Bluebirds earned six consecutive points with Page Hiebert serving and Tia Goertzen getting kill after kill from the left side. The Bluebirds pushed their lead to 15-5, forcing a Little River timeout. Each team had short runs during the rest of the game as the Bluebirds won, 25-17. Little River started well in the second game with some hard hits from Skylar Johnston. Goessel fell behind, 7-2, before putting together some good plays. Trailing 12-9, Johanna Hoffman served an ace and then Jessica Harvey assisted every player on the front row as Alex Hiebert hit a winner, Page Hiebert earned another kill, Erin Brubaker scored a point, and Alex Hiebert won a joust above the net to take the lead, 14-12. As the game neared the end, Alicen Meysing tipped for a point and two Little River errors ended the game with Goessel winning, 25-20.
Goessel tangled with class 4A school Hesston in a close match. The score was tied 11 times during the first game with neither team able to lead by more than three points the whole game. With the score tied at 13, Hesston made two errors and Page Hiebert hit a winner, forcing Hesston coach Jason Peters to call a timeout and try to refocus the Swathers. Hesston responded with four consecutive points. The game was tied at 23, but Hesston was able to win the next two points for a 25-23 win. The second set started badly for the Bluebirds as the first four rotations for Goessel had three serving errors. By that time the Swathers were ahead, 8-3, and Goessel would get as close as 12-9 before Hesston’s Caylee Richardson connected on several hits, guiding the Swathers to the win in the second game, 25-15.
The Bluebirds finished pool play in second place and traveled to Canton for bracket play, meeting Hillsboro in the semi-final match. Goessel played well early, matching the highly ranked Trojans point for point. With four miscues in a row by Hillsboro, Goessel led 11-6. Hillsboro tied the game at 12, and the game was tied again at 17. The Trojans attacked with many weapons to outscore the Bluebirds 8-1 to finish game one with a 25-18 victory. The second game was filled with passing problems for the Bluebirds. The Trojans jumped to a 19-6 lead and went on to win, 25-8, in the second game. The loss placed Goessel in the consolation match playing Halstead for third place.
Goessel built a small lead early in the first game at 9-6, but the Dragons tied at 9. The Bluebirds went ahead, 14-10, but Halstead tied at 18. The Dragons got ahead, 23-18, but a Brubaker ace, a Harvey kill, a Page Hiebert smash and tip helped Goessel jump in front, 24-23. The set went into overtime with some great digging to save points and Halstead squeaked out a win, 31-29. In the second game, Goessel’s passing errors allowed Halstead to reach an 18-13 lead. Meysing, Brubaker, and Alex Hiebert all recorded a block as the Bluebirds tied the game at 20. The Bluebirds scratched out a 24-22 lead, but the Dragons scored three consecutive points to take the win, 26-24, and take third place.
Goessel played at Little River on Tuesday to take on the home team and Solomon in non-league games.