Salina ? The third time’s a charm for the Eudora High volleyball program.

After two heart-breaking appearances at the Class 4A state volleyball tournament the last two seasons, the Cardinals healed those wounds in a big way, making the most of Friday’s fortunate pool play tiebreaker by winning twice Saturday to claim this year’s state championship at the Bicentennial Center.

Eudora, the No. 2 qualifier from Pool A, needed three games to beat Pool B champion Topeka Hayden, 25-20, 18-25, 25-16, in the semifinals, then followed up with a 25-19, 25-22 sweep against Pool B No. 2 Augusta in the title match.

It makes the second straight season an area team has won the 4A crown, following up on Santa Fe Trail’s title last October.

“We are just in a state of awe,” Eudora coach Jill Stutler said. “We told the kids in the beginning, we’ve been given a second chance (after Friday’s disappointments), and the kids needed to remember how that feeling of disappointment felt when they thought their season was over. We told them they needed to really take control of their destiny today.”

Stutler said the Cardinals (40-7) played better as a team in Saturday’s semifinal and championship rounds.

“The defense made the difference. We knew defense would win the championship,” Stutler said.

Mariah Webb (23) and Nikki Snider go up for a block in a state volleyball semifinal against Topeka Hayden. Eudora defeated Hayden in three games and eventually won the 4A state championship by beating Augusta on Saturday in Salina.

After being eliminated in pool play each of the last two seasons, Eudora faced a similar possibility this year when it managed just a 1-2 mark in Friday’s three matches, tying both Paola and Holton for second place in Pool A behind unbeaten Towanda-Circle. However, a games-winning-percentage tiebreaker knocked Paola out of consideration, and Eudora’s head-to-head victory against Holton allowed the Cardinals to advance.

Once there, they simply took care of business.

“These kids have battled all season long, and this is just a great honor for our program,” Stutler said. “We had so many doubters thinking we couldn’t make it out of sub-state, and we had something to prove.

“We’ve been talking to the kids all season long about being selfless and coming together as a team. We did that today. We had our best matches today when it counted.”

The school will celebrate the team’s success with a pep rally at 8:30 a.m. Monday at the high school. The community is invited to attend.