CARTHAGE, Mo. — The Carl Junction Bulldogs earned a straight-set victory (25-14, 25-17, 25-21) Tuesday over their Central Ozark Conference rival Carthage Tigers.
Carl Junction scored nine of the last 11 points in the first set after Carthage made it 16-12, led for the vast majority of the second after breaking a 4-all score, and finished off the sweep by erasing a 21-20 deficit with the match’s final five points.
“I really liked us in the first two sets,” Carl Junction coach Cheryl Sharples said. “I thought we were really focused on the process of the match, were passing and executing well, and I thought in the third set we got a little unfocused. They made a couple things happen, but we found a way to win.
“I thought our servers did a really nice job from the serving line. They went back and hit spots well and served pretty aggressive most of the night. We got them out of system, and we defended them well.”
Carl Junction trailed by a small margin for the majority of the third set and Sharples called a timeout after Carl Junction lost a 20-17 lead and Carthage went back ahead 21-20 with four straight points. The Bulldogs had scored six straight to earn their three-point lead.
“You always like that when you come out of a timeout and get on a run like that,” Sharples said. “Kylie (Scott) had a real nice serving run right there to finish it off for us.”
Destiny Buerge finished the evening with 15 kills and 14 digs, Scott contributed 10 kills and 12 digs with two blocks, Karissa Chase had 10 kills as well as three blocks and two aces, Lo Jones distributed 30 assists and also tallied nine digs and three blocks, and Jocelyn Brown added 13 digs.
Carl Junction improved to 19-9-2 overall and 5-2 COC, and the Bulldogs take their first shot at reaching 20 wins overall this season with a match Thursday at home against Ozark. Ozark defeated Carl Junction in two sets in tournament play back in September.
“I feel like we’re playing solid right now,” Sharples said. “I just want to keep trudging along and keep grinding it out, just keep getting better day in and day out and be where we want to be at the end of the season.”
Carthage dropped to 8-18-2 overall and 2-5 COC, and the Tigers return home Thursday and welcome a 22-win Republic and fellow Tiger squad for their penultimate conference match.
BULLDOGS TAKE THIRD IN TOURNEY ACTION; JONES SETS ACE RECORD
Over the weekend, Carl Junction took third palce in the Lebanon Pinkfest volleyball tounament.
The Bulldogs earned a pool-play over West Plains (25-19, 25-11), before splitting with Marshfield (17-26, 25-16) and falling to Helias Catholic (25-20, 25-16). In bracket play, Carl Junction defeated Lebanon 25-19 and 25-12 before falling to Hermann 23-25, 25-20 and 25-23. In the third-palce game, the Bulldogs defeated Marshfield 25-20 and 25-18 to secure the win.
Buerge had 43 kills, 25 digs and three blocks in the tournament. Scott finished with 40 kills, 27 digs and four aces, while Chase added 31 kills and three blocks. Brown had 39 digs and six aces, while Jones had 113 assists, 20 digs, 10 aces, four blocks and 12 kills.
Jones’ 10 aces in the tournament helped her become the all-time leader in service aces with 154 by the end of the day. Jones passed Jessa Hylton (2018-21) on the all-time list, who held the previous record of 148. Jones entered the day with 144 career aces.
