Joplin hosted Nixa in the final home game of the season on Thursday and fell in three sets on Senior Night inside Kaminsky Gymnasium.
Nixa and Joplin battled back and forth for much of the night before NHS used a long service run in each set to pull away late for a 25-14, 25-14 and 25-15 win in Central Ozark Conference action.
“I think our girls worked extremely hard tonight,” Joplin coach Desiree Felker said. “They played their butts off. We didn’t back down. I think the biggest difference, though, was Nixa showed up ready to win. We played to win at times, and then there were times where we played frazzled and not to lose. When we were playing to win, we were competing and kind of taking it to them. Then, a couple of things don’t go our way and we let up a little bit.”
With the win Nixa improves to 22-6, 8-0 COC. Joplin falls to 15-11-1, 3-5 COC.
SENIOR NIGHT
Joplin celebrated Senior Night against Nixa and honored Paisley Parker, Jayla Hunter, Abby Hembree, Serafina Auberry, Abby Edwards and Kaya Cooper.
“You can’t say enough good things about this group of seniors,” Felker said. “They work extremely hard every single day and were a big reason we were able to win a district title last year. They do a great job with the younger kids in the program as well. They do all of the right things and are great culture kids. We are really going to miss them next year.”
GAME ACTION
Joplin and Nixa played evenly in the first set, with JHS holding a 9-8 lead after a kill from Bailey Owens.
A sideout kill from Hillary Estes, a JHS error and a kill from Norah Clark gave Nixa all the momentum it needed, as that was the final lead change of the set. Later in the set, Sidney Ayers earned a kill before Estes struck for a kill again, which was followed by an ace from Chloe Judd to push the Nixa advantage to 18-12.
Owens earned a block to trim the Joplin deficit to 18-14, but Nixa scored the final seven points, six on Ayers’ serve, to finish off the first-set win. Ayers had two aces in the run, while Clark, Estes and Madison Goleman all had kills.
The second set was back and forth early as well before Nixa scored seven of eight points to build a 13-5 lead over Joplin. Chipping away at the margin, Joplin cut Nixa’s lead to 16-11 after kills from Owens and Auberry. However, Nixa again pulled away at the end, holding an 18-14 lead before a sideout kill from Estes was followed by a six-point run in service by Ayers once again to clinch the second-set win. Ayers had two aces, while Estes had a block and a kill and Jewel Bray added a kill.
The final set played out much like the first, with Nixa and Joplin battling in a seesaw contest. Nixa held a slim 10-9 advantage before a long service run from Bray had NHS holding an 18-10 advantage. Nixa finished off the set and match shortly after.
STATS
Owens led Joplin with nine kills and a block, while Parker had seven kills, two aces and nine digs. Auberry had four kills and five digs. Adalynn Noirfalise finished with 23 assists, whil Hunter added 15 digs. Edwards had seven digs.
UP NEXT
Joplin is in the Ozark Grand Slam Invitational tournament over the weekend. After the weekend invitational, the Eagles’ next time on the court will be at Webb City on Tuesday to wrap the regular season.
Joplin will then head into the Class 5 District 7 tournament as the fourth seed and take on fifth-seeded Lee’s Summit North (8-19) on Thursday at Lee’s Summit West High School.
“That tournament has a lot of high-level volleyball,” Felker said. “If we are going up to Kansas City for districts, we need to play some high-level volleyball leading up to it. I think it will be good for us moving into that.”
