By LARRY MORITZ

Specail to The Hays Daily News

SALINA -- It was certainly a step in the right direction, but Phillipsburg's improvement at the Class 3A state volleyball tournament did not come without disappointment.

The Panthers reached a state tourney title contest for the first time in the program's history on Saturday, only to fall short in a 25-17, 25-19 loss to Wichita Collegiate in the championship match at the Bicentennial Center.

While it will go down as the best finish ever for a Phillipsburg volleyball team, the Panthers did not get the satisfaction of ending their season with a victory, as they did when they finished third in 2008.

"Even though second is better than third, it's harder right now because we didn't get to end our season with a win like last year," said Phillipsburg senior Makenzie Weinman. "But we made it to the championship match for the first time in school history, and that is an accomplishment."

"Second is better than third," said Phillipsburg coach Terra Keeten. "Ending your season on a loss is hard, but I think the girls will wake up tomorrow and be very proud of themselves.

"It's big for our kids to not only be here two years in a row but to advance out both years."

Phillipsburg ended its season with a 40-4 record, with two of those losses in two days to Collegiate after meeting Friday in pool play. It was not only Collegiate's first state volleyball title, but the Spartans' (40-1) first ever appearance at a state tourney.

Phillipsburg never led in either game of the championship match. The Panthers trailed 8-7 in the opening game before Collegiate went on a 9-2 run. Phillipsburg would get no closer than four the rest of the way.

The Spartans led 18-10 in the second game when the Panthers put together a final rally attempt. Kills from Weinman and Nicole Swatzell, along with Alivia Lenneman's stuff block cut the deficit in half, but a pancake save by the Spartans on Weinman's next attack stopped the run there.

"(The Spartans) run their offense so quickly that it's hard to keep the blocks up," Weinman said. "But I thought we played them much better today than we did yesterday and had more blocks. I don't know if we had any blocks the first time."

"We really tried to fine tune things this year with our offense," said Collegiate head coach Donnie Wallace. "We want to be fast and aggressive. We want to push things even if we are not doing well."

Phillipsburg advanced to the title match with a 25-23, 25-16 semifinal victory over Central Heights, handing the Vikings their first loss of the tournament.

The first game included an unusual situation that may have helped swing momentum in Phillipsburg's favor. With the game tied 6-all, Central Heights picked up a sideout and served four consecutive points for an 11-6 lead.

The match was then stopped when game officials discovered an error in the Vikings' rotation. It was determined Central Heights had been using the wrong server and, after a 15-minute delay, the five points were taken off the scoreboard and the Panthers were awarded one point for the infraction, going from an 11-6 deficit to a 7-6 lead.

"They had the wrong server in for five points and when it was caught, those points had to come off," Keeten said. "It was a very unfortunate error that happened with the bookkeeping, and you feel sorry for those kids and their coaches.

"But the second game we came out very aggressive. We told the kids they should prove that they deserve to win, and I thought they did that."

The Panthers put together a 7-1 run to pull away in the opening game, then never trailed in the second, closing with an 8-2 run to lock up their first appearance in a state title match.

"Overall, we had a very athletic group with a couple of girls that really power the ball down for us," Keeten said.

"But this was a collective team effort. They all fought to the bitter end, and it was always a true team atmosphere with these kids."

Collegiate needed three games to get past Southwestern Heights in their semifinal, before Southwestern Heights defeated Central Heights in the third-place match, 25-19, 26-28, 26-24.