The Ottawa High School volleyball team knows its opponents in Saturday’s 4A sub-state tournament in Osawatomie.

Ottawa has either played all of them or seen them through the season.

The Ottawa High School volleyball team knows its opponents in Saturday’s 4A sub-state tournament in Osawatomie.

Ottawa has either played all of them or seen them through the season.

“They have the ability to play with every team that is there.” Ottawa coach Kendra Oberzan said after the Cyclones’ five-set loss Tuesday to Louisburg in the final home match. “We know what to expect from them. We don’t know what to expect from ourselves.

“The team that serves and passes the best is the team that wins. Those two areas are our focus. Offensively, we are one of the better teams in the sub-state.”

Ottawa (18-20) received the No. 7 seed and opens sub-state against No. 2 seeded Paola (29-9). The match will be at 2 p.m. in the red gym. The other match in the bracket has No. 3 Louisburg (27-11) vs. No. 6 Spring Hill.

Ottawa rallied after losing the first two sets to force a deciding fifth set in the regular-season finale. Ottawa lost 25-22, 25-21, 18-25, 14-25, 15-8.

“It should give us some confidence knowing we can come back,” Oberzan said. “We need to try and not get into those situations.

“I was happy with the way we fought through. They showed good resiliency after being down 0-2.”

The first two sets were competitive with Louisburg pulling out the sets in the end.

Ottawa controlled the third and fourth sets. Ottawa opened an 18-11 lead in the third and jumped to an 11-3 lead in the fourth before Louisburg rallied to take a 13-12 lead.

Ottawa closed with a 13-1 run to win the set.

Louisburg took charge in the fifth opening an 11-1 lead. Ottawa closed within 13-8.

“In the fifth set, we kept fighting,” Oberzan said. “Volleyball is an up and down sport. You have to learn to recover and ride the high times. We are doing a better job of recovering.”

Part of the reason for the swings of runs was Ottawa’s inability to pass consistently and too many serving errors.

Oberzan said those two areas have plagued Ottawa all season.

“Passing is huge,” Oberzan said.

Ottawa played in a front a big crowd on senior and dig for the cure night. Ottawa wore pink uniforms in honor of breast cancer awareness.

Seniors Shandra Bulmer, Kylie Fischer, Jillian Prather, Paige Weidner and Alexis Roecker were honored following the match.

Stat leaders

Alexis Roecker: 16 kills, 23 digs.

Paige Weidner: 13 kills.

Kylie Foster: 6 kills.

Jillian Prather: 18 digs.

Brette Moore: 3 blocks.

Shandra Bulmer: 2 blocks.

Kylie Fischer: 5 kills.

Junior Varsity

Louisburg def. Ottawa 26-24, 25-18.

Freshmen

Louisburg def. Ottawa 25-22, 24-26, 15-10.