CARL JUNCTION, Mo. — Carl Junction made quick work of Aurora with a straight set sweep on Thursday.
The Bulldogs (2-2) opened with a 25-6 win in dominant fashion before pulling away to a 25-12 win in the second game. Carl Junction wrapped the night with a 25-22 victory to complete the sweep.
“We are still trying to find ourselves as a team a little bit,” Carl Junction coach Cheryl Sharples said. “We are still messing with our lineup to find out what some of our kids can do for us. At times, that kind of takes us out of our focus and being as smooth as we want to be. Plus, we encouraged them to run some more daring plays in that third set to get them more comfortable in that situation.”
The Bulldogs found little resistance in the opening set, jumping out in front quickly and never looking back.
“It was our serving,” Sharples said of the Bulldogs’ quick start. “We really are trying to focus on being a more aggressive team when serving because we have been passive at times this year. I told them to go for it. If they missed their serve, they missed the serve. I want us to serve teams out of system, so I am OK if we miss a serve here or there if we are being aggressive.”
The Houn’ Dawgs opened with the advantage in the second game, scoring the first three points backed by a kill from Jacey Lee.
Carl Junction rallied back to tie the game at 4-4 behind a kill from Kylie Scott and an ace by Maggie Brown.
Both teams played evenly until a five-point service run from Olivia Vediz staked the Bulldogs to a 14-8 lead. Abigale Wilson, Jessa Hylton and Brown each had kills in the run, with Vediz picking up an ace.
“Olivia was hitting spots and being really aggressive with her serve,” Sharples said. “It got them out of system and gave us the opportunity to take some swings, score some points and give us some cushion.”
Destiny Buerge capped the win with a nine-point run in service to end the second game. Buerge had two aces, while Hylton had three kills in the run.
“Jess is so explosive and has the ability to take over a match,” Sharples siad. “That is what we want her to do—get in situations to take over the match and put the game away for us.”
The Bulldogs jumped out to a 15-9 lead in the third set following a kill from Scott, but the Houn’ Dawgs rallied back with six straight points to tie the set at 15-all. MaKena Hall had an ace, while Gabbie McVey had a block before Carl Junction committed three straight attack errors to even the score, with Sharples calling timeout.
“I just talked about refocusing and getting back to what we needed to do,” Sharples said. “We were scoring a lot of points for them at that time. We just needed to finish, which is what you have to do against any team.”
A four-point service run from Logan Jones after a sideout staked CJ back to a comfortable 20-15 lead, with the Bulldogs closing out the win shortly after.
Hylton led Carl Junction with 13 kills and two aces in service, while Scott had eight kills, one ace and a block. Buerge had 10 digs, six kills and two aces, while Jones finished with 36 assists, 10 digs and three aces. Vediz finished with 16 digs to lead the Bulldogs.
Carl Junction is at Rogers on Monday.
