photo by: David Rodish/Journal-World

Senior Jessica Sayler dives for a ball during Lawrence High School's volleyball opener against Topeka Hayden on Tuesday, September 3 in Lawrence.

Lawrence High School’s varsity volleyball team started its season at home hosting Manhattan, Washburn Rural and Topeka Hayden high schools.

The Lions didn’t come away with a win in any of their three games — in fact, the team only won one of the six sets it played — but the Lions responded in each game and each set, improving throughout the night. For new head coach Deborah Newkirk, that’s about as good as it can get.

“I’m super excited about the progress we made, set to set,” Newkirk said. “We competed today, and that’s step one. We competed with everyone on the other side of the net.”

Newkirk said that the team was inches away. The team did a lot of the right things, just wasn’t able to finish. The Lions would go on a 4-0 run, when the team needed six. It was close, but wasn’t enough to pull away from any match with a win.

Lawrence started with a service ace on the first play of their game against Topeka Hayden. The momentum didn’t last long, as Topeka took an 8-3 lead afterward. The Lions fought back, tying the set at 10 each, but only scored seven points to Topeka’s 15 to lose the set.

The Wildcats quickly took a lead in the second set, and the Lions were unable to catch up and lost two sets to none in their first game of the year.

In the second game against Washburn Rural, the Lions recorded their first set win of the season. Unlike the first game, they started fast, jumping out to an 8-2 lead that stretched to 19-8 before the Junior Blues called a timeout. The Lions scored two more points before relinquishing seven to close the gap. Lawrence finished with a 25-17 win in the set after stopping the Washburn push.

The Junior Blues won the final two sets to take the game. The second match started back-and-forth, but the Junior Blues took control and built an 18-8 lead. They finished with a 25-12 win to send it to a third set.

Washburn picked up where they left off, taking a 10-4 lead early. The Lions battled back but fell short 25-19.

The Lions faced Manhattan for their final game and may have had their best all-around set in the game. The home team took a 7-3 lead before Manhattan battled back to tie it at 12 each. After some back-and-forth points, Manhattan took a four-point lead and won 25-19.

The final set of the night was also the one with the most points scored by the Lions, and it was close throughout. The two teams battled to a tie at 5-5 before the Lions took a 9-5 lead. Manhattan responded to tie it back up at 11. Neither team gained more than a two point advantage until both teams were tied at 20. From there, Manhattan took a 24-20 lead before winning 25-21.

“We talk about three things — how we act, react and respond,” Newkirk said. “The grit that they played with… never rolled over, never lowered their heads. They showed a lot of composure, so I’m super proud of them.”

Losing each game put a damper on the night, but the team’s overall competitiveness was impressive to their coach.

“We have a lot of material to work on (for) practice tomorrow, but I’m super happy with it,” Newkirk said. “I thought we made progress.”

photo by: David Rodish/Journal-World

Senior Maddy Crawford, left, blocks an attempted kill against Topeka Hayden during the LHS volleyball season opener on September 3, 2024 in Lawrence.

photo by: David Rodish/Journal-World

Sophomore Rael Simien, right, goes for a kill against Topeka Hayden during the LHS volleyball opening night on September 3 in Lawrence.