The volleyball season started on Saturday for a trio of Kanzaland area teams as Centralia, Axtell and Oskaloosa all competed at the Wabaunsee Invite and for two of the three teams it was solid performances. The tournament featured four State ranked teams by the KVA, which includes Centralia (#2 in 1A-DI) and Axtell (#1 in 1A-DII). 

The defending Class 1A-DI State champs and defending champs of the Wabaunsee Invite the lady Panthers of Centralia started the volleyball season off with a bang going 5-0 and claiming the tournament title. Centralia worked through pool with three straight set wins over Oskaloosa (25-5, 25-5), Osage City (25-15, 25-6) and Wabaunsee (25-20, 25-23). In the Semifinals the Panthers meet up with fellow Twin Valley League team in the Axtell lady Eagles and earned a tough 25-19, 27-25 win to make into the championship match. In the Championship match it was another match up with the third rank team in Class 2A in the host Wabaunsee and this time the match went to three sets, but Centralia still earned the win 25-23, 25-27 and 25-18 to claim the tournament title and start the year 5-0. 

For Axtell the Eagles finished with a 2-3 record at the tournament taking fourth place and put together a strong performance against several top notch teams, as their three loses were to ranked teams in Centralia and Rock Creek, twice. In pool play the Eagles earned straight set wins over Council Grove (25-19, 25-22) and Mission Valley (25-19, 25-13), while falling in straight sets to Rock Creek the fifth ranked team in Class 4A-DII (25-12, 25-22). The Eagles moved into the Semifinals falling to Centralia (25-19, 27-25) and set up another match up with Rock Creek in third place match. In the third place contest Axtell pushed Rock Creek to three sets but suffered the loss to finish fourth place at the Wabaunsee Invite (20-25, 25-13, 25-15). 

Oskaloosa out of the Northeast Kansas League also opened their volleyball season on Saturday and had a rough outing going 0-5 in the tournament to open the season. The Bears fell to Wabaunsee (25-6, 25-6), Centralia (25-5, 25-5) and Osage City (25-15, 25-18) all in straight sets in pool play. In the consolation Semifinals Oskaloosa took on Council Grove and fell in straight sets (25-20, 25-9) and then took on Mission Valley in the seventh place game in which they fell in straight sets, also (25-12, 25-9).

The volleyball season rolls along on Tuesday, September the 1st with match ups all across the Kanzaland area.