Garden City is top seeded in 6A State VB Championships

The Garden City Buffaloes learned quite a lot a year ago about what it takes to be successful at the Class 6A State Volleyball Championships. They were hard lessons to learn, dropping all three of their matches in pool play to end their season.

Thanks to their tough schedule, and their successes this fall, the Buffaloes will also head into this year's State Volleyball Championships with a target on their backs.

Garden City earned the No. 1 seed in the KSHSAA State 6A Volleyball Championships, to be held at the Tony's Pizza Events Center in Salina, and will face tough challenges in Friday's pool play round.

The Buffaloes are in a pool with Lawrence-Free State (24-12), Overland Park-Blue Valley (28-8) and Overland Park-Blue Valley North (27-8). The other pool includes No. 2 Topeka-Wahsburn Rural (36-5), Gardner-Edgerton (26-10), Derby (33-8) and Shawnee Mission-Northwest (28-10).

Garden City (32-3) will play on Court A in all three of their matches. The action begins on Friday at 3:30 p.m., with Garden City scheduled to play Lawrence-Free State at 4:30 p.m., Blue Valley North at 6:30 p.m. and Blue Valley at 8:30 p.m.

Two of Garden City's three losses came from the Blue Valley group of schools, including Blue Valley High, who swept GC at a tournament earlier this month. Their other loss came at the hands of Maize South, who is the top seed in the Class 5A Tournament.

Garden City has wins over two other teams in state tournaments - Wichita-Bishop Carroll (5A) and Derby, which came at a tournament in September.

The top two teams from each pool will move on to Saturday's bracket. The semifinals winners will meet for the state title, which will follow the 3rd place match.