Carroll ends Wichita-area drought vs. KC teams, finishes fourth in 5A volleyball

In 54 tries, no Wichita area team has reached the 6A or 5A semifinals by beating a Kansas City area team since 2011.

Bishop Carroll did in 2018.

The Golden Eagles beat De Soto 25-19, 21-25, 26-24 to help clinch their spot in the Saturday schedule. And although they finished fourth with a couple of losses to other Kansas City teams, they proved it possible.

“Just to be here is a really fun experience,” senior Sarah Brittain said. “We weren’t just competing for ourselves. We were competing for the Wichita area.”

Since 2010, the Kansas City area is 65-8 against Wichita teams in the state’s top two classifications. It has one semifinal win and zero state championships. But the gritty, undersized Carroll team historically shouldn’t have been there anyway.

And because the Eagles were, they had fun with it.

Before matches, even before the third-place game after being eliminated from state championship contention, the Eagles did the hokey-pokey. They smiled on the court and laughed at their mistakes at times.

“I think we genuinely are friends that can stay friends when it’s not volleyball season,” Brittain said.

Coming into the 2018 state tournament, Carroll hadn’t reached the 5A semifinals since 2014. Those Eagles beat Topeka Seaman and Newton to get there.

Coach Rita Mernagh has been at Carroll for a dozen years. She said this year’s team was different.

“They definitely have each others’ backs,” she said. “There are some years where that isn’t the case and they’re in it for themselves. This team, they never count themselves out. They have a lot of faith in themselves, and they’ve been in a lot of big games.”

St. Thomas Aquinas beat Carroll 25-22, 25-15 in the semifinals on Saturday, and Lansing then took down the Eagles 25-22, 25-21 in the third-place match. Carroll showed some fight but was out of energy, less experienced in the state tournament and it could be argued less talented.

“If size mattered, the elephant would be the king of the jungle,” senior Britney Ho said.

That grit became this Carroll team’s swagger.

The seniors brought it to practice. They knew the season would be a grind, and they embraced it. They entered the 5A tournament as the No. 1 seed, and though that wasn’t reflected in the final standings, senior Brittyn Hipp said her group had a mindset few other teams could possess.

“I just really believe in the saying, ‘Hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard,’ “ senior Brittyn Hipp said. “And we worked really hard this season.”

After beating Maize South on Friday night to clinch a semifinal berth, Mernagh said any team can be beaten on any given day. Saturday just wasn’t that day.

But senior Brittyn Hipp said despite the 2-3 record they walked out of Salina with, the experience and history of getting there won’t leave them.

“I can picture myself with all my gray hair sitting in a nursing home and just saying, ‘Wow, remember when,’ ” Hipp said.

This story was originally published October 27, 2018 at 7:29 PM.