Lawrence High’s volleyball team went 2-1 in its final home match of the season.

LHS coach Jo Huntsinger said her team’s outlook was positive, despite a 15-11, 15-6 loss to Leavenworth Immaculata, which spoiled the Lions’ bid at a perfect quadrangular Tuesday at Lawrence High.

LHS won matches against Emporia and Topeka West.

“We told the kids we couldn’t really bask in the glow of the two previous wins for too long, because we had to play after that,” said Huntsinger, whose team is 11-25 heading into Saturday’s sub-state at Leavenworth. “And we’re not going to wallow in defeat either. We have to cut the cord with that and understand we do have sub-state next Saturday.

“We wanted to make this night really special for the seniors, and we accomplished two big wins.”

Any win would have been big for the Lions coming into Tuesday.

Lawrence had won only two of its last 18 matches after starting the season 7-8. And a completely revamped offense had Huntsinger saying she honestly didn’t know what to expect.

With senior Katie Willoughby on crutches with an ankle injury, Huntsinger moved junior Kim Davis to outside hitter and brought up junior varsity player Abby Schwartz to play the middle.

The Lions won their first four matches, and allowed an opponent to score more than six points only once. LHS beat Topeka West, 15-13, 15-5, and Emporia, 15-6, 15-3.

“If we can hit the ball first we’re gonna be in good shape, because we do have a lot of offensive weapons,” Huntsinger said.

But the problem for the Lions is when the other team gets the first shot.

And Immaculata did that in the third match, again and again.

The Raiders rumbled to a 9-1 lead before the Lions sustained a rally to tie the score at 10-all, but Immaculata went on a 5-1 run to take the first game.

“We can always expect the same thing out of them every year,” Huntsinger said. “They’re extremely scrappy and I think this year they had a little more offense. We expected to have a great match with them and that’s why we actually played them last.”

Lawrence quickly fell behind 6-1 in the second game, too.

Despite some timely timeouts and quick surges, the Lions could never recover and the Raiders scored nine of the final 14 points.

“Things weren’t flowing,” said senior Morgan McMichael, one of six Lions leaving the LHS gym for the final time. “Our passing wasn’t there and when our passing wasn’t there, other things weren’t there.

“It was just really an emotional game, it was the last one and we really wanted to go 3-0.”

Lawrence’s other seniors are: Sara Coon, Kristen Jarboe, Monica Ruiz and Kristen Byington.