The team celebrated Senior Night on Tuesday in the home opener and now directs its attention to Saturday’s Rossville Invitational.

“The girls are really excited about playing at home,” said Sara Poje Schmidt, THS coach said Monday. “I know the seniors are amped up for it.”

Each player gets an allotted number of tickets for guests to each match this season due to COVID-19 restrictions and precautions.

“Most of the girls — I’m pretty sure all of the girls — have offered up their tickets,” Schmidt said about underclassmen making their tickets available to seniors if they wanted more family to attend on the special night. “‘If you need them, you can have mine.’ I’m proud of them. That’s kind of a cool move. We’re hoping the seniors have everyone there that they want there.”

Tonganoxie entered the week at 1-3 overall and 1-1 in Frontier League play. Tuesday’s match took place after The Mirror’s print deadline, but more about the match can be found online at tonganoxiemirror.com or on the The Mirror’s Facebook and Twitter pages.

THS met Paola on Sept. 8 on the road and fell 25-22, 25-9, 25-15.

“The second set maybe wasn’t great, but you know the first one they played up a little bit, fought hard,” Schmidt said. “The third one, again, they played hard, they just tend to want to get a few points behind and then start a comeback. And that doesn’t always work out. You can’t always dig those holes.”

The Chieftains are ready to get back into the win column this week. Tuesday’s match against Piper already was a rematch of a previous meeting this season. The Chieftains dropped the Pirates during a triangular at De Soto.

“Practice has been going well,” the THS coach said. “We’re really focused on some front-row blocking and footwork … timing and reading the setter.

“A lot.”

Saturday’s 10-team tournament in Rossville will start at 9 a.m., but essentially will be two tournaments. Tonganoxie will go against Silver Lake, Abilene, Holton and Topeka Northeast Cornerstone in Rossville’s new gymnasium. The other pool will play its matches at the main RHS gymnasium. Teams in that pool are Wamego, Ottawa, El Dorado, Osage City and Rossville.

The top four teams in each pool will then advance to a four-team single-elimination bracket in their respective gymnasiums. As part of COVID-19 pandemic adjustments, teams will play all matches in one gymnasium, whether it be the main one or the new gym, and fans will be not be allowed at the tournament.

Though this year’s schedule constantly is subject to change, the Rossville tourney currently is the Chieftains’ lone regular-season tournament.

Tonganoxie is back on the road Monday with competition at Highland Park in Topeka. THS then is back home Tuesday against Bonner Springs.