CARL JUNCTION, Mo. — It was another historic night in Carl Junction, as sophomore setter Logan Jones broke her own CJHS record for assists in a single game while helping the Bulldogs upend Ozark 19-25, 25-14, 20-25, 25-21, 15-10 in a five-set Central Ozark Conference thriller.
“I knew it was going to be a battle,” CJ coach Cheryl Sharples said. “We played them twice in the Springfield Classic and took a couple of wins off of them, so I knew they would have that revenge motivation. They are a very good team that did some really nice things to take advantage of some things we were struggling with. It was kind of a roller-coaster game for us. I thought at times we played at a really high level, and at times we struggled. But, again, they found a way to win.”
Jones set the Carl Junction single-game assists record last season with 43 against Springdale Har-Ber on Oct. 24. She broke her own record against the Tigers with 49 assists on Thursday.
“Logan is such a great setter, she really is,” Sharples said. “She has a mind for the game and is very aware of what is happening on the other side of the net to get us matchups. She played hard tonight. She was a little gimpy, but she played through that and took control and made things happen for our hitters.”
“I think it just shows how great my hitters are and how great my passers are,” Jones said after breaking her own assist record. “Before each play, I communicate with the girls on what to do with the offense and what would be best compared to the other team. So, it’s really easy for me when they know exactly what to run and what would be best.”
The win moves Carl Junction to 17-3 on the season, with a second-place 4-1 record in the COC. Ozark falls to 9-7, 3-2 in the COC.
GAME NOTES
Ozark opened the night by taking the first game thanks to a late service run by Kinsey McAllister. The Tigers took the lead 17-16 before ripping off six straight points in her service to build a 23-16 advantage, stealing the momentum in the first set. Hanna Vorhies had two kills in the run.
Carl Junction trailed 6-4 early in the second game before Jones earned a kill and came up with a big service run of her own, which spanned 10 points to give the Bulldogs full control of the set with a 15-6 advantage. Jones had an ace, while forcing Ozark into five errors. Salma Lewis added two kills, with Kylie Scott earning a kill as well.
“She has a great service that is very effective and has a lot of movement on it,” Sharples said of Jones. “We face it in practice every day and it gives us fits, so I know it’s going to give other teams problems.”
Ozark methodically built a lead in the third game, with a block from Savannah Eisman giving the Tigers a 17-11 advantage. A kill from Eisman and an ace by Kenna Humble pushed the margin to 21-13.
The Bulldogs made a late run, with a kill by Jessa Hylton followed by a four-point service run from Destiny Buerge cutting the deficit to 22-20. Buerge had two aces, while Jill Kennedy had a block and a kill during the run. Ozark went on to win the set 25-20, but it was that late run that sparked Carl Junction’s play in the final two games.
“I just told them to build a little bit of momentum,” Sharples said. “Don’t worry about the score, just build the momentum. That was key to focus on that momentum and grab it a little bit.”
Carl Junction trailed 10-7 in the fourth set following an ace by McAllister, but a kill from Lewis forced a sideout. With Lewis in service, she earned a kill and an ace to tie the set at 10-10. Hylton followed with a kill to give the Bulldogs an 11-10 lead.
Carl Junction pushed the lead to 16-13 after a block by Jones and a kill from Hylton. Both teams traded blows before the Bulldogs forced a fifth set following a kill from Hylton and Lewis to close out the forth set, 25-21.
“I thought we did a good job of digging in after falling behind,” Sharples said. “We passed it well to get what we wanted out of serve-receive. We were executing. All of our hitters were taking good swings and executing.”
In the match-deciding fifth set, Carl Junction was leading 6-5 with Ozark serving when Jones came up with perhaps the biggest play of the night, sticking her arm out while on her backside for an incredible dig on a Tigers attack. The point ended moments later in a kill for Lewis to put Carl Junction on top 7-5, swinging the momentum in favor of the Bulldogs as the crowd erupted.
“That was an awesome play,” Sharples said. “It just showed the true mentality of never giving up on the play. I told them going into that fifth set that we really had to dig deep, and that we needed everybody’s best moment during that set. I feel like that kind of sucked the air out of them when we got that point.”
Carl Junction built the lead to 9-5 after a kill from Hylton and an attack error on Ozark. The Tigers trimmed the lead to 10-8, but a kill from Hylton, an error on Ozark and an ace from Hylton sent Carl Junction to a 13-8 advantage. Lewis earned a kill to get the Bulldogs to 14, with an error by the Tigers following a sideout ending the match in favor of Carl Junction.
“They took a lot of great swings for us,” Sharples said of Lewis and Hylton. “We struggled a little early against the block, but I thought we made good adjustments we needed to make.”
STATS
Aside from her recording-setting 49 assists, Jones added four blocks for CJ. Lewis finished with 19 kills and 22 digs, while Hylton added 17 kills and 24 digs. Buerge had 15 digs.
UP NEXT
Carl Junction travels to Carthage for a matchup on Monday.
