Second-seeded Joplin made quick work of third-seeded Belton with a 25-21, 26-24 and 25-18 win in the second Class 5 District 12 semifinal matchup of the night inside Kaminsky Gymnasium on Saturday.
“I feel like my girls played really hard tonight,” Joplin coach Desiree Felker said. “We set our sights really high at the beginning of the season. We’ve talked a lot about being all-in. I think that we did a good job of executing where we needed to at the net tonight. We knew Belton was going to do some good things, that they served aggressively and they had some pretty good hitters. I thought that we played pretty well defensively to handle that.”
With the win, the Eagles advance to the district title game where they will face top-seeded Carthage at 6 p.m. on Monday.
“They serve aggressively and they are very aggressive at the net,” Felker said. “We are going to have to bring our A-game defensively to handle that, but I think we are willing to do what it takes to get the job done.”
Joplin (14-11-5) was the first team to gain a cushion in the opening set, pushing a 14-13 lead to 18-13 thanks to a four-point service run by Kaya Cooper that included kills from Emma Floyd and Allie Lawrence.
Floyd earned a kill to make the score 20-15, with Lawrence following suit shortly after to push the lead to 22-17. Logan Bruggeman added a block before Lawrence closed the opening set with a kill.
“I think that she did a really good job tonight,” Felker said of Lawrence. “She plays with a lot of emotion and her teammates respond to that.”
The second set saw the Pirates hold a 12-11 lead before a kill from Bailey Owens forced a sideout before Paisley Parker came out with a four-point run in service to give the Eagles a 16-12 advantage and flip the momentum. Angelina Schramm and Owens each had kills in the run.
“Bailey Owens does a good job for us,” Felker said of her sophomore. “We trust her to put the ball away wherever we give it to her. She has done a really good job with that. … She did a good job tonight of putting the ball away and putting pressure on the other team at the net.”
Joplin didn’t relinquish the lead until a kill by Avery Caskey and a net violation put Belton on top 22-21. The Eagles tied it on a kill from Emma Floyd before a Pirate error and a block by Floyd gave Joplin the 24-22 advantage. Floyd earned a kill and Parker added an ace to close out the second set.
“Sometimes throughout the season, we have been on the other side of that where we didn’t maintain our composure through the adversity,” Felker said. “I think we are at a place right now where we can do that and push through that together.”
Lawrence swung the momentum in favor of the Eagles early in the third set with five points in a service run to make the score 12-6. Schramm added a block to force the sideout, while adding two kills in the run. Abby Edwards also had a pair of kills.
Joplin held its multi-point lead before pulling away late before Schramm ended the set and match with a kill.
“I think it was huge for our confidence going into Monday,” Felker said about finishing the match in a sweep. “We knew they were going to be tough and I think that we were able to push through that and grind it out was big for our confidence.”
Floyd led Joplin with 10 kills and a block, while Lawrence and Schramm each had nine kills. Schramm added two blocks and two digs, with Lawrence adding nine digs. Owens had six kills, a block and a dig. Cooper had 20 assists and two digs, while Parker had 19 digs and three aces and Jayla Hunter had 17 digs.
