photo by: David Rodish/Journal-World

Eudora senior Camron McCormick gets up for a hit on a Monday September 30, 2024 morning practice at Eudora High School.

Eudora volleyball coach Brooke Hopper is silent for the first part of any timeout. Instead of telling her team what they need to fix, she has the players take care of it themselves.

The Cardinals are a senior-heavy team that has a lot of experience playing together. That experience has built a strong overall team IQ which allows them to diagnose and fix their own issues, and it’s how the Cardinals have become one of the top teams in the state this year.

Eudora lost six seniors last season, but the Cardinals have another strong senior class of seven this year. Along with a junior, three sophomores and a freshman who has been the team’s best player at times, they have the Cardinals among the top teams in 4A.

Self-correction has been a constant theme for the team. Whether it be in a set after a timeout, between sets or at a following practice, the Cardinals have identified their mistakes and fixed them. Senior Indigo Pruitt said that the members of a team can talk among themselves faster to fix an issue than to rely too heavily on their coach to tell them what needs to be fixed.

“We’ve played with each other for so long, we can tell how to talk to each other,” senior Camron McCormick said. “We know who needs encouragement if something goes wrong or who needs tips. Everyone is different.”

The Cardinals have spent a lot of time playing together and even more time around each other. Even after the Cardinals competed in six total games during a tournament last Saturday, several Cardinals players got together for a scary movie night and a team dinner the following day.

Senior Adalyn Hemphill said that everyone plays a leadership role. Everyone steps up to make their voice heard, even the younger girls like freshman Braydee Miller. Hopper said that Miller has immediately been a force for the team as both a veteran leader and a strong player.

“We have a lot of friendship on this team this year,” Hemphill said. “We can laugh about a lot, and that leads to good chemistry on the court. Even if we have a bad run in a game, we still find ways to communicate and make it fun for each other.”

The seniors said that they picked up a lot of leadership from last year’s seniors. Through the summer camps, they learned how to put that leadership together, which has helped them become self-sufficient. Just as they learned a lot from the previous year’s senior class, this group is working to leave the program in place for a new class of leaders.

That mostly comes with creating a team dynamic with everyone and including the underclassmen. The team has an environment that allows younger girls to use their voices in games. One of those underclassmen is Miller.

While Hopper and the team have noticed Miller’s leadership and vocal qualities, she’s also made an immediate impact on the court. She leads the team in kills per set and hitting percentage and has played at a high level from the start of the season.

This is Miller’s first season at Eudora, but this isn’t her first time playing with the Eudora team. Miller has played club volleyball with many of the seniors on the team for years, which has helped her fit alongside her teammates right away.

When it comes to their on-court play, the Cardinals have a diverse array of talents. Senior setter Miranda Kuntz said that everyone does something well, which helps them succeed against different teams in different situations. That helps them pick up the slack if the team is having an off night in an area.

“Something is always on, and we can use that to our advantage,” Kuntz said.

The Cardinals have continuously improved over the past few seasons, and this year the team is ready to win the Frontier League and make a run for state.

To get there, the team said that they need to get better at finishing. They can get to an early lead and reach the 20-point mark, but they sometimes allow the other team too much momentum and the final five points are harder to get. In order to achieve what the team knows they can this season, the Cardinals need to finish their opponents and prevent any potential comeback.

The good thing for the Cardinals is that they’ve shown that fixing their issues is their strength. No matter the situation, they can figure out what needs to change and fix it as a team.