photo by: David Rodish/Journal-World

Eudora volleyball celebrates with the home student section after winning substate on Saturday, Oct. 24, 2026, in Eudora.

After two years of falling just short, Eudora volleyball won its substate bracket on Saturday to advance to the 4A state tournament.

“I feel like I’ve held my breath all season long because we felt like this was something we could accomplish, but the last two years we’ve had some tough draws and haven’t made it as far as we wanted to go,” Eudora coach Brooke Harper said. “We knew this was a good opportunity for us to get it done this year. It feels great.”

Eudora finished the regular season 30-7 with a perfect record against the Frontier League, which was good for No. 2 in the 4A East region. The Cardinals were able to have a strong regular season even without a senior-heavy team. Harper said it’s a credit both to the seniors who have made an impact and to the young Cardinals who bought in.

“I knew this team could do it, and I’m just so excited,” senior Brianna Paul said. “They trust in the seniors, and we believe in them. There’s just a mutual respect.”

In the Cardinals’ home substate tournament, they faced two more familiar league opponents in Tonganoxie and Ottawa. That gave the Cardinals confidence going in, knowing they’d seen these teams before.

“We knew what they were good at, we knew their weaknesses,” junior Braydee Miller said. “We were able to pinpoint those and really lay on the hits or serves. That helped us win.”

The Cardinals started the day with a two-set win over Tonganoxie. Tonganoxie took an early lead before Eudora took control with an ace from Paul to give the Cardinals a 4-3 lead. From there, the Cardinals controlled the score the rest of the set.

Eudora forced a Tonganoxie timeout after taking a 15-11 lead with an ace from senior Avery Hemphill. The Cardinals only continued to push the lead after the break, with Hemphill’s serving leading Eudora to a 20-11 lead. The Cardinals built their lead to 10 points before the Chieftains called a second timeout. Sophomore Hannah Wenger got a kill after the break as Eudora scored three out of the four points following the timeout to win the set 25-13.

Tonganoxie took the lead early once again in the second set, building a 4-1 advantage over the Cardinals. But Eudora went on an 8-1 run to force a Tonganoxie timeout. The Chieftains scored a couple of points after the break, but Eudora continued to add to its lead, starting with a kill by Wenger. Hemphill’s kill to take a 17-10 lead prompted the second Tonganoxie timeout, but the Cardinals finished with an 8-1 run to win the set 25-11, with Hemphill providing the final ace to win the match.

The duo of Hemphill and Miller provide a lot of enjoyable offense to watch, so much so that Harper sometimes just sits back and watches them attack. Miller said the offseason work in the weight room and the gym along with the club season has helped them become such effective hitters.

Ottawa beat Chanute in two sets to send the Cyclones to the substate final against Eudora. Hemphill and Wenger started the first set with back-to-back kills, but the Cyclones were able to tie it up and keep the set close in the early moments. The Cardinals did push to a 15-11 lead, but that lead quickly disappeared with a 6-0 Ottawa run to get ahead of the Cardinals 17-15.

Eudora didn’t panic or even need a timeout. The Cardinals rallied together to end the run with a kill by Miller, and she got another to give the Cardinals the lead again. The set remained close until the Cardinals looked in trouble facing a 23-21 deficit, which led to a timeout.

It would’ve been easy for the Cardinals to move on to the second set at that point, but Eudora bounced back and scored the next four points to win the set 25-23. Senior Isabella Brunkow got under a low ball, which set Miller up for the set-winning kill.

“We continued to play until that final whistle, and they did a great job of making sure that we finished,” Harper said.

Harper said the team has done well all year long at staying at the same emotional level, not getting too high or too low. That emotional maturity was a key difference in Eudora getting the win in the first set. Harper didn’t need to talk to the team — the Cardinals were able to get it figured out themselves.

“We were talking about how we just need to take everything and make it higher,” Miller said. “Those first balls, those second balls, make it higher, so then we’re able to have more time. Then we were able to be more calm.”

Eudora started from behind for the third time on the day in the second set against Ottawa, but the Cardinals tied it up at 6-6 and took the lead on an ace from Miller. The score went back and forth for a while, with neither team able to get too much momentum with a few service errors on both sides.

The Cardinals started to build a cushion with Hemphill’s kill to take an 18-16 lead. A point for Eudora after led to an Ottawa timeout, but Wenger got the next point on a kill. Ottawa scored three of the next five points, but Eudora finished with three straight to win the set 25-19 and advance to the state tournament.

The 4A state tournament will be held at Hutchinson Community College and will start on Thursday.

“We should just have fun,” Miller said. “Whenever we’re not tense and we’re calm and collected, we do well. Whenever we have fun, we’re making those plays because we have an all-out effort. When we’re tense, we’re more hesitant. I want this team to have fun, play our game and be disciplined.”