A deep senior class and plenty of returning experience have Manhattan High volleyball eyeing another postseason run despite a .500 start to the 2026 season.<\/p>\n
The Indians (4-4) went 1-2 on Monday as they hosted a quad against Hayden, Washburn Rural and Shawnee Mission East.<\/p>\n
Manhattan went 1-2 at its home tournament, opening the day with a three-set loss to Hayden before bouncing back with a straight-set win over Washburn Rural. The Indians closed the day with a straight-set loss to Shawnee Mission East.<\/p>\n
\u201cHaving seven returners as our core has been awesome, just having that experience and knowing that we just lost, but they know it is just a small part of what the season can look like, and we\u2019ve got to learn from it,\u201d Jones said. \u201cThey\u2019ve had a hard three days, but it\u2019s great to have that senior leadership.\u201d The win over Washburn Rural was particularly significant for Manhattan, marking its first regular-season victory over the Junior Blues under fifth-year head coach Nicole Jones.<\/p>\n
Manhattan had gone 0-16 against their Centennial League foe in the regular season over the previous four seasons, with the Indians\u2019 lone win against the Junior Blues during that span coming at the 2024 Class 6A state tournament.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was super exciting,\u201d Jones said. \u201cThey came out, we had a great crowd, everything was just clicking. We had a great setter-hitter connection, and everything just seemed to go our way. We had the momentum on our side, so it was nice, especially to win in front of our home crowd.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Indians opened the day with another tightly contested first set against Hayden, pulling out a 26-24 victory after the teams were tied at 24. However, Hayden responded by taking the next two sets 25-20, 25-20.<\/p>\n
Manhattan quickly put that loss behind it against Washburn Rural, jumping out to a 7-2 lead in the second set after taking the opener 25-23.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s early in the season, and we keep talking about how the season is a journey,\u201d Jones said. \u201cSo we really talk about moving on, being in the moment. Hayden\u2019s over, and now we\u2019re playing Washburn, so we have to move on to the next match. We talk about that all the time: moving on to the next match.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Indians then faced another close first set against Shawnee Mission East, falling 25-23. Manhattan battled back from an early deficit in the second set, taking a 14-13 lead before falling behind 19-16. The Indians rallied again to take a 23-22 lead, but the Lancers closed out the set 26-24.<\/p>\n
Manhattan entered the home opener with a 3-2 record after its season-opening tournament in Hays last weekend.<\/p>\n
The Indians opened that tournament with straight-set wins over Bishop Carroll and Dodge City before falling to eventual champion Free State in a pair of close sets. Manhattan then lost a three-set battle with Olathe North before closing the tournament with a sweep of host Hays.<\/p>\n
The early-season schedule has given Manhattan plenty of opportunities to test an experienced group.<\/p>\n
The Indians finished 28-10 last season and made their third consecutive trip to the Class 6A state tournament. Manhattan returns seven players from last year\u2019s state team, including eight seniors overall on this year\u2019s roster.<\/p>\n
That experience already has been valuable for Jones and the Indians, particularly when dealing the ups and downs of a long season.<\/p>\n
Leading that group is senior outside hitter Bailey Busch, who is entering her fourth year on varsity and has committed to continue her volleyball career at Weber State.<\/p>\n
Jones said Busch has continued to establish herself as a leader both on and off the court.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe leads every day at practice and on the court, just trying to keep it positive, trying to help kids know where they need to go,\u201d Jones said. \u201cShe has a huge volleyball IQ, and she\u2019s our rock. She\u2019s great.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Indians\u2019 senior group also brings familiarity to the court, with many of the players having competed together in club volleyball for years.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s great,\u201d Jones said. \u201cI have eight seniors, and they\u2019re all friends. Many of them have actually played club together, so they\u2019ve been doing this for a really long time. It helps that they all can trust each other and rely on one another, so we\u2019re not having to spend time building that chemistry because it\u2019s already there.\u201d<\/p>\n
Joining Busch in the senior class are Ansley Becket, Jelena Depusoir, Avery Leicht, Sophia Peabody, Evie Ruliffson, Madison Stanard and Keeli Tepe.<\/p>\n
While much of Manhattan\u2019s roster brings experience, the Indians are also working younger players into the lineup.<\/p>\n
Junior Stella Salmans has stepped into a middle-back role, while sophomore Ella Kurtz earned a role as an underclassmen.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe\u2019s fiery, and she can cover our corners really well,\u201d Jones said of Salmans. \u201cAnd then we have Ella Kurtz, a sophomore in that DS (defensive specialist) role and just stepping into it. So it\u2019s been great.\u201d<\/p>\n
Through the first two tournaments, Jones said the biggest area for improvement is on the mental side of the game.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would say we need to work on our mental game, just being confident and making sure that we move on after making a mistake,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
With their deep senior class that owns a handful of state experience, the Indians know they still have plenty of season ahead to continue working toward the team\u2019s goals.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A deep senior class and plenty of returning experience have Manhattan High volleyball eyeing another postseason run despite…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":335142,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[8918,75,84,83,8919,9,24,8920,8917,63,319,26626,1339],"class_list":["post-335141","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-manhattan","tag-american-football","tag-manhattan","tag-manhattan-headlines","tag-manhattan-news","tag-national-football-league","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nfl-seasons","tag-nfl-teams","tag-nyc","tag-sports","tag-tournament","tag-volleyball"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/335141","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=335141"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/335141\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/335142"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=335141"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=335141"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=335141"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}