Silver Lake ? It wasn’t quite the state championship, but the way Stephani Heider jumped off the bench Tuesday night it might as well have been.

In what will most likely be the recent Free State High graduate’s final volleyball match, Heider closed her competitive career with one final victory when her red squad defeated the blue squad, 3-2, behind a thrilling fifth-game tiebreaker at the Kansas Volleyball Assn.’s 2002 All-Star match at Silver Lake High.

“It was a pretty neat way to end it,” Heider said of her career. “But when you think that might be the end of it, it’s kind of emotional.”

Heider who is 99 percent sure she’ll attend Kansas University in the fall to study physical therapy, but won’t go out for the volleyball squad was among 20 standout seniors who were selected out of about 35 nominated players from all six state classifications to play in the prestigious game.

While she didn’t stand out quite as much as she did at Free State, the 5-foot-10 middle blocker had her moments Tuesday.

None was bigger than when Heider first made her entry into the contest.

She immediately laid down a booming block to give her red squad a 9-4 lead in the first game, which her team went on to win 30-21. The red squad also won the third and fifth game with Heider playing her part.

She had a five kills in a dozen or so attacks and also had a handful of blocks and digs.

Heider, who had 130 blocks and 126 kills as a Firebird last season, said it was kind of unique to be playing her final competitive match with girls she really didn’t know.

“I only knew one person coming here, but we had a really good practice this morning and we kind of meshed together,” she said. “It was kind of like at Free State because we were the underdogs in this game, too, because we lacked height.”

But Heider’s team didn’t lack heart in the final game when it rallied from a slight deficit to win, 15-13.

“It was fun and the competition was good,” Heider said of the five games played under the rally scoring system. “It was kind of an exciting way to go out.”

While Heider won’t follow in her brother’s collegiate footsteps Matt Heider is currently a wide receiver at KU she said she definitely will continue playing the sport she loves.

“I’ve already talked to a bunch of girls about playing club volleyball,” Heider said with a smile. “This definitely won’t be the end of it.”