SHAWNEE — Under the clear night sky, fans filed into Mill Valley Soccer Stadium to witness something epic — but it had nothing to do with soccer. 

They entered the stadium to witness something no one at Mill Valley had seen before, which is saying something for a school that has seen its fair share of state championships in recent years. 

Approximately 2,000 fans entered the stadium to watch volleyball as Mill Valley hosted the Outdoor Showdown: Volley in the Valley on Sept 2. The event is a Kansas High School Activities Assocation sanctioned match with Piper High School — something that hasn’t been seen in Kansas in more than decade. 

Leavenworth hosted the first outdoor match against Shawnee Mission North and Olathe Northwest back in 2012, which was also a cancer awareness game. The Jaguars certainly made this one an event to remember for themselves.  

The weather turned out to be a cool summer evening, with little to no breeze and not a cloud in the sky. In fact, by the time the varsity took the court both teams were playing under the stars. 

“It gives me goosebumps,” Mill Valley coach Kylie Corneliusen said. “There is a lot of time and a lot of effort that is being put into this and for it to turn out this way is almost like a dream. The weather, the court, the net and all the worries I had about it — it just turned out amazing. We had an awesome crowd out here. I told the girls after it was all over that they need to be grateful to be a part of something so awesome and you can’t take that for granted.” 

As successful as the night was, a lot of effort went into planning the event. Ideas were hatched early this year and parents began to get to work on making the event possible, which included one of the parents purchasing the floor to play on. 

“To be honest a few parents and our volleyball program did most of the work to make this happen,” Mill Valley activities director Brent Bechard said. “They found community members and businesses to be game sponsors so that there would be no cost to the district or school. The day before and day of was quite a bit of work moving everything outside that is normally inside for a volleyball game. We were very fortunate to have the weather that we did. That took a major stressor off our plates.” 
 

Normally Corneliusen is focused on the upcoming match, but the worries of bad weather and everything that came with the event was enough to send her mind elsewhere. Even with all that, she tried to get her team focused with all the distractions around them. 

Her team isn’t used to playing in front of thousands of people with cameras all around the court, but the Jaguar players shut those distractions out as they cruised to a 3-0 win over the Pirates. 

“The thing that I keep telling myself is that these girls are going to remember this forever — just the atmosphere and doing something that they don’t do every day,” Corneliusen said. “It added a little bit of pressure on them. They were nervous because there were so many people here and I think that will pay off later down the road.” 

As for the players themselves, the challenge of going outside their comfort zone and playing outdoors took a little bit of getting used to, but after a few points, the nerves began to go away. 

“It is amazing,” Mill Valley setter Ella Florez said. “It means so much to me that this many people would come together and have enough passion to put something on like this for a group of teenage girls. I know the whole program is just super excited about it. We didn’t know how many people were actually going to show up, so to see this many people here was amazing. 

"We were hoping for good weather and we got that. The depth perception is not something you are used to, but you just have to go out there, rely what you do inside and hope it translates outdoors. We passed a few balls outside after school to get feel for it. It was different, but it was a good different.” 
 

On the other side of the net, Piper also had to figure out how it was going to prepare to play in an outdoor match — something most volleyball coaches don’t ever have to think about.  

“One of our girls has a backyard net that we set outside the school and used that a couple times,” Piper coach Lori Angello said. “We got the outdoor elements taken care of, but the atmosphere was something you just can plan for. It was awesome.” 

Student sections for both schools came out in full force to support the event and made it feel like a postseason atmosphere. 

“It is really hard to prep for something like this, especially coming from a school where the student section doesn’t normally travel,” Angello said. “So to have them here was super cool. It was a really exciting night for us, and we are very thankful Mill Valley asked us to come play.” 
 

It was the first victory of the season for the Jaguars as the two-time defending state champion fell to defending 5A champ St. Thomas Aquinas in the St. James Volleyball Slam last Saturday. 

The outdoor event provided the Jaguars the opportunity to put that loss behind them and get their season back on the winning track. 

“I think they learned a lot on Saturday,” Corneliusen said. “When you are the defending state champion, you are going to get everyone’s best game. That is awesome, but they have to remember that and not get ahead of themselves. I think it will make us a better team moving forward.” 

Corneliusen also hopes an event like this one can shine a light, not just on her program, but the community in general. 

“It definitely brought the attention of an outdoor game,” she said. “We have a Junior Jag program and some of them were the ball shaggers, so to just get people excited for the sport, especially in this community, we want to keep the kids interested in Mill Valley volleyball and say that they want to be out here one day. That is what it is all about in my opinion.” 

To see a photo gallery of the event, click here