Panther Volleyball Begins Season at Marysville Invitational
The 2025 Panther Volleyball season officially began over the weekend. Concordia is looking to make it back to the 4A State Tournament for the second straight season and try to capture its 12th State title.
Head Coach Kayla Garst enters her second season at the helm and has a lot of returning talent to help. The Panthers return 4 members who were named All-NCKL.
Senior Kynlee Hamel- 1st team All-NCKL and Honorable Mention 4A State
Senior Baylen Arnold- 2nd team All-NCKL
Junior Jaylin Roush- 2nd team All-NCKL
Senior Charlize Cash- Honorable Mention NCKL
Concordia opened the season on Saturday, August 30th, at one of the most premier season-opening tournaments in the state of Kansas, the Marysville Invitational. This tournament featured 10 schools from across the state. 6 of those schools achieved major success in 2024.
Defending tournament/NCKL champ and state qualifier Clay Center. They were the #1 seed at 4A State in 2024.
The 3A State Runner-Up Nemaha Central.
The 2A State Runner-Up Valley Heights.
The #5 seed at 4A State Holton.
The #6 seed at 4A State Concordia.
The #8 seed at 3A State Royal Valley.
The teams were split into two pools:
1 Nemaha Central 1 Clay Center
2 Valley Heights 2 Holton
3 Concordia 3 Royal Valley
4 Marysville 4 Cheney
5 Riley County 5 Sabetha
The Panthers started their pool play with defending 2A State Runner-Up Valley Heights. Concordia won with a 2-0 sweep, winning the first set 25-20 and winning a narrow 2nd set 27-25. Jaylin Roush led the way for CHS with 9 kills, while Rylie Jessup had 26 assists, and Kynlee Hamel finished with 2 service aces. Click here to see the highlight video.
Next for Concordia, they took on defending 3A State Runner-Up Nemaha Central. The Panthers won with another 2-0 sweep, winning the first set 25-21 and the next 25-20. Charlize Cash led the way for CHS with 5 kills, Rylie Jessup had two service aces and 20 assists. Click here to see the highlight video.
In their third pool play match, the Panthers suffered their first loss of 2025 against the Falcons of Riley County. After a decisive 25-6 opening set win for Concordia, the Falcons came back to take the next two. Riley County won the final two sets 25-18 and a close 28-26 final set. Click here to see the highlight video.
To finish pool play, Concordia faced the host team and NCKL foe the Marysville Bulldogs. The Panthers got back on track with another 2-0 sweep, winning the first set 25-21 and the next 25-19. Click here to see the highlight video.
After finishing second in the pool, the Panthers were able to advance to the bracket portion of the tournament. In the semifinal round, Concordia faced the #5 seed in the 2024 4A State Tournament, the Holton Wildcats. Holton was able to hand the Panthers their first sweep of the year, winning 25-22 and 25-18. Click here to see the highlight video.
The Panthers competed in the 3rd place match of this competitive opening-season tournament in a rematch with Riley County. This time, the Falcons were able to sweep CHS with scores of 25-21 and 25-16. Click here to see the highlight video.
Clay Center went on to win the tournament for the second straight year, defeating Holton in an impressive 25-11 and 25-16 sweep. Concordia will make the quick turnaround and travel right back to Marysville for a NCKL matchup on Tuesday, September 2nd, beginning at 5:15 p.m.