NEOSHO, Mo. — The Neosho Wildcats improved to 5-2 on the season with their 3-0 victory (25-17, 30-28, 25-19) Monday against non-conference rival McDonald County.
The visiting Mustangs jumped out to an early lead in each set, only to see the Wildcats come back and win the set in the end.
“Coming out with the win is what we had planned for and discussed as a team,” Neosho coach Jessica Walton said. “We did not plan for McDonald County to be that close, but our serve receive gave us some issues. Overall, compared to last year, we aren’t a team that gives up and have learned to handle pressure a lot better than the previous year.
“I don’t feel like we tapped into our true team Monday night. I saw bits and pieces, but I am glad we pulled out the win. This is a special team, and I don’t want anyone to judge them based off that match.”
Neosho erased a slim 14-12 first-set deficit with a decisive 10-0 run and then exchanged a series of side-outs to close out the set 25-17.
Neosho fought off two set points to earn a 24-all score in the second, then fought off three more set points before putting together three straight points to claim the second 30-28.
Neosho went ahead 11-10 in the third set and never looked back en route to a sweep.
Neosho returns to action Tuesday with the Central Ozark Conference opener against Nixa (8-3).
“I think we have made great progress,” Walton said. “We are already on track to beat our record last year, and our JV has done an exceptional job and already broke their record. I feel we still have a lot of growing to do as far as conference play and starting out with Nixa is tough. They are a great team and a great program. We are taking some of our matches as a way of preparation for districts, so getting the experience playing against them and collecting more footage, we can hopefully start working on ways to compete better with them.”
