CARL JUNCTION, Mo. — It was a night to remember in Carl Junction (15-2) as senior outside hitter Salma Lewis became the first Bulldog to surpass the 1,000-kill mark in her career during a win against Neosho (12-5-1) on Tuesday.
“It honestly means a lot to me, and it was such an amazing experience getting to celebrate it with my team,” Lewis said. “It was so much fun.”
“She is the first player I have had play for me that has hit the 1,000-kill mark,” Carl Junction coach Cheryl Sharples said. “It doesn’t happen a lot in high school. A, it says a lot about her as a player, and b, it says a lot about our program because you have to play for successful teams to be able to accomplish that.
“Today, my thought was that there are some kids who don’t take 1,000 swings in their career, so for her to get 1,000 kills is pretty remarkable.”
Carl Junction led 15-12 in the first set when Lewis, a four-year starter, came from the back row on the right side and swung herself into the history books with her 1,000th kill to give the Bulldogs a 16-12 lead.
“The first and second years were the most difficult,” Lewis said when reflecting on her high school career. “I think in my junior year, I got really comfortable with all of my teammates around me. We all worked really well together. Logan (Jones) is a great setter and she really helped me out. I think we just connected as a team the last two years, and that pushed me to be better for them.”
To make the moment more special, play was stopped briefly as Lewis was able to celebrate with her team, who is like a family to her.
“I was so excited to be able to experience this with them on the court,” Lewis said. “They have all been here for me and supported me throughout the way. It meant a lot.”
“I love it that our team wanted her to accomplish that,” Sharples said. “In my opinion, that just reflects back to the type of person she is. If she wasn’t a good leader or a nice kid, I don’t know if they would cheer for her in that situation. It just speaks to what type of player and kid she is.”
Over the last two weeks, Lewis, a Drury University commit, broke the CJ kill record on Sept. 17, helped her Bulldogs win the CJ Classic tournament on Saturday and has now surpassed the 1,000-career mark. To say it has been a roller coaster of emotions would be accurate.
“It’s been a bunch of emotions, but it’s all been good,” Lewis said. “I think now we have to have the mindset for a district championship. We all are putting in the work in and out of practice. If we all come together as a team, we will be OK.”
GAME NOTES
The Bulldogs earned a 3-0 (25-14, 25-11, 25-8) sweep of the Wildcats.
“I thought we started a little tight early just because we wanted to get the monkey off our back for (Salma),” Sharples said. “Overall, I thought we were doing some different things offensively and working on our serve-receive. I thought in games two and three that our passers did a better job of staying low and letting the ball come to them.”
“We passed at a 1.5 and a 1.8 when we’ve been passing from 2.0 to 3.1 and you can’t do that in the COC, period, and you sure can’t do that against Carl Junction because they are too good of a club,” Neosho coach Ann Landrum said. “We’ve lost focus and I think fatigue has set in. But we have to learn to get over that because we have not played as well as we have this year. There are a lot of excuses we could make, but the bottom line is we have to suck it up, put on our big-girl pants and do it. … We have to get back to being focused and committed to the little things that have gotten us this far.”
The opening set went back and forth before a pair of three-point service runs by Lewis and Olivia Vediz gave Carl Junction an 11-6 lead. Following Lewis’ historic kill and a pair of sideouts, Lewis led a five-point service run to push the lead to 22-13. During the run, Destiny Buerge, Jessa Hylton and Maggie Brown all earned kills. Carl Junction finished off the first set with a kill from Hylton followed by an ace from Vediz and another kill by Hylton.
“We focus a lot on serve and pass, that’s our game,” Sharples said. “We really focus on who we want to serve at and make it an aggressive serve. We hope it pays off for us in points.”
Service control played a large role in the Bulldogs’ success in the second and third set as well. With a 16-9 advantage in the second game, Carl Junction’s Jillian Kennedy ran off six straight points to build a 21-9 lead. What impressed Coach Sharples the most about that run? It was a total team effort.
“It was fun to watch some good defense,” Sharples said. “I thought our (libero), Olivia (Vediz) did a good job of stepping in and really attacking and taking some stuff away that they were trying to do.”
Hylton used three consecutive aces early in the third set to give Carl Junction a 4-1 advantage. After a kill from Neosho’s Savannah Merriman cut the lead to 9-4, a kill from Lewis followed by a five-point service run later in the final set by Lewis, who had three aces in the run, to push the lead to 15-4. Carl Junction continued to cruise in the final set, with Hylton finishing off the win with two aces.
STATS
Lewis led Carl Junction with 11 kills, while Vediz finished with 18 digs. Hylton had five aces to lead the Bulldogs, while Brown had two blocks. Logan Jones had 31 assists.
Merriman and Abby Jarvis each had four kills for Neosho. Merriman had a team-high three blocks, while Lexi Laney had four digs. Kaylee Butler led Neosho with four service points.
UP NEXT
Carl Junction travels to Willard on Thursday.
Neosho travels to Ozark on Thursday.
