CARL JUNCTION, Mo. — Carl Junction faced a strong resistance from Joplin in nearly every set but found a way to come through when it mattered most as CJ finished off the Eagles with a 25-21, 22-25, 25-19 and 25-13 win while celebrating Senior Night on Tuesday.
The Bulldogs took a close opening set before the Eagles evened things up with a tightly-contested second set. After Carl Junction again earned a narrow win in the third set, the Bulldogs got out to a sizable lead in the final set on the way to the match win.
“I thought in the second set (Joplin) kind of increased their intensity and we decreased ours,” Carl Junction coach Cheryl Sharples said. “I talked to them a little bit about getting to that next level and not being OK with playing average volleyball. I thought in the third and fourth set, we were serving really aggressively and kept ourselves in system and did some nice things.”
“We did a lot of things really well tonight at the net and defensively,” Joplin coach Desiree Felker said. “We changed our lineup a bit to get Serafina (Auberry) the ball a bit more, which worked in our favor several times tonight. There were a few miscues with our rotation tonight that cost us at key moments as a result of us changing it, though. Bailey Owens had a great night at the net and Jayla Hunter did a great job holding down the back row for us.”
SENIOR NIGHT
Carl Junction honored four soon-to-be-graduating student-athletes on Senior Night—Lo Jones, Destiny Buerge, Jocelyn Brown and Adia Kennedy.
“They came in pretty quickly and made impacts at a high level,” Sharples said of her four seniors. “Des and Lo played varsity from freshman year up, and Adia and Jocelyn made immediate impacts even at the JV level and have come in and made a great impact on varsity this year. They’re great leaders, and not just on the volleyball court. They’re really involved in school and are leading in the classroom by being great students. I couldn’t ask more from them.”
GAME ACTION
Carl Junction opened the first set as the aggressor, scoring the first four points on Jones’ service. Jones had an ace, Buerge a kill and Karissa Chase added a kill and a block. That would be the biggest margin of the game until the closing points.
Joplin rallied back and played evenly with the Bulldogs for much of the first set, including tying the game at 16-16 on an ace from Abby Hembree.
Carl Junction took the momentum from there. An attack error forced a sideout before Chase picked up five points in service, including back to back aces, to push the CJ lead back out at 22-16. Jones, Kylie Scott and Aubreigh Fowler added kills in the run before the Bulldogs went on to complete the opening-set win.
The second set was even tighter than the opener. Neither team took the momentum and played within several points of each other the entire game. Joplin’s first taste of breathing room came on a kill from Bailey Owens to give the Eagles a 22-20 lead. Joplin held that two-point margin until Serafina Auberry was able to cap the second game with a kill to even the match.
The back-and-forth style of play continued in the third set, with the Bulldogs taking the advantage late on a sideout kill from Scott, an ace from Fowler and another kill from Scott to push the lead to 19-15. Joplin scored the next two before Carl Junction ended the game shortly after.
“That was huge to come back after letting a set slip away from you,” Sharples said.
Carl Junction was able to build a bit of a cushion early in the fourth set, using a block from Jones and a kill from Scott during Fowler’s service to push the advantage to 13-6. The lead went to 16-8 on a kill from Kennedy. Chase earned a kill to give the Bulldogs a 20-10 lead and a Scott kill put the score at 23-12 before CJ finished the match off moments later.
“Our ball control was a little better,” Sharples said about her team’s ability to jump out to a lead in the fourth set. “I thought we were passing kind of tight most of the night. In the fourth set, we kind of kept ourselves off the net better so we could run our offense.”
STATS
Scott, who recently received an athletic offer from the University of Hawaii, finished with 17 kills and 16 digs, while Buerge, who announced her commitment to Pittsburg State University during the Senior Night ceremonies, was right behind with 14 kills and 14 digs to lead the Bulldogs. Jones, who is committed to Arkansas, finished with 43 assists, two aces and two blocks. Brown finished with nine digs, while Kennedy had four kills and three blocks. Chase had four kills, four blocks and four aces, and Abigail Wilson adedd nine digs.
Owens had 10 kills and a block for Joplin, while Abby Hembree and Auberry each had six kills. Hembree added 11 assists and four digs and Auberry added 11 digs. Paisley Parker had five kills, three aces and eight digs. Jayla Hunter had a team-high 17 digs, while Abby Edwards finished with nine digs. Adalynn Niorfalise had 13 assists.
UP NEXT
Joplin is at Willard on Thursday.
Carl Junction is at Branson on Thursday.
