Coming off a sweep Thursday at Pleasant Ridge, the Chieftains (6-6) went 2-4 in tournament action. They were in a pool with Clay Center, El Dorado, host school Rossville and Holton.

THS went 2-2 in pool play, defeating El Dorado (25-16, 21-25, 25-14) and Holton (25-17, 25-23) and losing to Clay Center (25-22, 25-21) and Rossville (25-19, 15-25, 25-21). The .500 record was good for second in the pool behind Clay Center.

The Chieftains opened bracket play against De Soto, which won the other pool. THS lost in straight sets (25-13, 25-17), then also fell to Abilene in the third-place match (25-22, 25-13).

“We did a lot of really good things and we found out some places we need to work a little harder, which is typical for early in the season,” coach Tiffany Parker said. “We had some girls step up and play well.”

Parker praised the efforts of senior Summer Cerny, as well as sophomore Taylor Lee, who stepped in when Halley Calovich suffered an injury.

Parker’s squad opens a busy week Tuesday with a home dual against Kaw Valley League opponent Mill Valley. The Chieftains will return to the court Thursday when they travel to Jeff West for a triangular with JWHS and Pleasant Ridge.

They’ll cap off the week Saturday when they host nine schools for the annual Tonganoxie Invitational, which begins at 8 a.m. This year’s field is comprised of THS, Garden City, Bishop Ward, Bonner Springs, Eudora, Gardner-Edgerton, Great Bend, Ottawa, Piper and Shawnee Mission Northwest.

“We haven’t talked a whole lot about it,” Parker said of the tournament. “We kind of take it one day at a time. They know it’s coming and I know it’s in the back of their minds, but we just kind of look to the next match to get better each day.”

THS will try to improve on last year’s sixth-place performance, in which it went 2-3. There will be a new tournament champion this season, as 2013 champ Olathe East is not in the field. OEHS defeated Great Bend in last year’s title match.

Tournament updates will be available throughout the day at twitter.com/tonganoxie and facebook.com/tonganoxiemirror.