College Heights saw its season come to an end following a 25-8, 25-10 and 25-11 loss to Miller in the Class 1 Sectional round of the state tournament on Thursday at Ozark Christian College.
“Miller is deep and solid,” College Heights coach Mary Colin said following the season-ending loss. “Our goal was to play very aggressively. We knew if we soft-shotted or free-balled that it was going to come back at us hard. So, our goal was to come out and be aggressive and you saw some of that. … The problem was, we just weren’t consistent throughout and in the attempt to be aggressive, we had errors. And you can’t error in volleyball or you’ll lose.”
The Cougars end the season with a 17-14-2 record and will return every player from this year’s roster. College Heights has earned a district title in each of the last two seasons.
“Losing eight seniors last year and basically having a whole new squad this year, for them to follow up with a district championship was super fun,” Colin said. “I felt like they had a really competitive season. They grew a lot this season.”
“They didn’t have that pressure (of ‘this is it’) all season long,” Colin added about not having a senior on the roster this season. “It was really about growth and getting better, and they did. They kept getting better and it was really fun. It wasn’t just about today, but tomorrow. It wasn’t just about this season, but next season. And we did talk about that a lot—how it’s not just about this year, but next year, too. They love this game.”
Miller (31-3-1) advances to the Class 1 quarterfinals with a matchup against Midway (30-6) on Saturday.
Miller jumped out in front early in the first set, taking a 10-1 advantage out of the gate before pushing the lead to 12-4 on a kill from Kaylee Helton. The Cardinals scored six of the next eight points to go up 19-6. Miller scored the final six points of the match, highlighted by three kills from Hailey Schnake, to take a 1-0 lead.
A seven-point service run early in the second game from Schnake staked the Cardinals to an 11-1 lead before the Cougars found some momentum with three kills from Addie Lawrence and a block from Libby Fanning made the score 13-5.
After building a 10-point lead in the later stages of the set, Miller scored seven straight points to make the score 24-9. Ashten Kingsley and Schnake had kills in the run, while Claudia Hadlock had two aces. The Cardinals closed the set moments later.
College Heights found its rhythm on offense out of the break to start the third set, with Lawrence recording five early kills to give the Cougars a 6-4 lead. CHC maintained a slim lead until a block from Emberlynn Kingsley and a kill from Schnake gave Miller the lead shortly before a three-point run that included an ace by Hadlock provided the Cardinals with a 13-9 advantage.
The errors that plagued the Cougars in the first two sets showed up late in the third set, as Miller scored the last 11 points of the match, with six of those points coming on miscues by CHC.
STATS
Lawrence had 15 kills to lead College Heights, while Lauren Ukena added five kills. Maddy Colin had 20 assists, with Fanning adding two blocks. Ava Masena had 13 digs.
