Stellar serving led the Joplin High School volleyball team to a 3-0 win over McDonald County on Tuesday night inside Kaminsky Gymnasium.
The Eagles defeated the Mustangs 25-9, 25-17, 25-14 in a non-conference match.
Joplin recorded 14 aces in three sets, with five different players contributing.
“We served very effectively tonight,” Eagles coach Staci Saunders said. “I thought our serving was fantastic. We had a great team effort. We took care of business.”
Aubrey Ritter recorded 17 service points and four aces, while Addison Saunders, Angelina Schramm and Kacy Coss recorded three aces apiece and Allie Lawrence had one. Lawrence had 15 service points, while Schramm and Saunders had 12 service points apiece.
“We were hard to serve-receive tonight,” Saunders said. “Serving was everything tonight. That was our game plan. We got them out of system a lot. We wanted to keep the ball away from their libero (Kaycee Factor). Their libero does a great job.”
Ritter and Schramm compiled seven kills apiece, while Coss and Lawrence added four apiece. Saunders handed out 11 assists from the setter position, while defensive specialist Kaylie Anderson had 13 digs. Ritter and Saunders chipped in six and five digs, respectively. Emma Floyd contributed three kills and two blocks, while Baileigh Riley added four digs and three kills.
In the first set, aces from Lawrence, Saunders and Ritter gave Joplin a comfortable 19-9 advantage en route to victory.
Logan Grab’s McDonald County squad led 8-3 early in the second set, but the Eagles rallied. Schramm served an ace to first tie the score at 15. From there, Joplin closed out the set on a 10-2 run.
“We had a letdown in the second set, but our girls got together and turned it around pretty well,” Saunders said.
The Eagles led the third set 10-3 before the Mustangs pulled within four at 17-13. But the hosts would rattle off eight of the next nine points to finish the night.
SENIOR NIGHT
Although they have plenty of home matches remaining on the schedule, Joplin held its Senior Night on Tuesday.
Like many other schools across the country, Joplin High School wanted to make sure the program’s seniors got their special night in case the season would get wiped out due to the coronavirus.
Joplin’s seniors are Saunders, Ritter, Riley, Anderson, Shahla Kellhofer and Mya Johnson.
“I liked doing it this early,” Coach Saunders said. “It’s a good group of seniors. Obviously, this is my daughter’s Senior Night. She’s my last one, so I’m a little sad. But it was a great night. I’m so glad Mr. (Matt) Hiatt moved it up. We’re not guaranteed tomorrow, so we made sure we got to honor the seniors.”
WHAT’S NEXT?
The Eagles will compete at the Hillcrest Slamfest on Saturday.
1 thought on “Strong serving leads Eagles past Mustangs on Senior Night”
So proud of these ladies! They have really come together as a team and genuinely build each other up to perform at their best! GO EAGLES!!