Ozark made it a point to jump out in front and play with the lead in a 25-19, 25-13 and 25-18 win over Joplin in Central Ozark Conference action on Thursday inside Kaminsky Gymnasium.
After a back-and-forth opening set that went in favor of the Tigers, Ozark jumped out to early leads and played with cushion in the final two sets to compelte the conference road sweep.
“Ozark does a lot of really good things,” Joplin coach Desiree Felker said. “We have to clean up a few things at the net, blocking wise. We were in the right spot a lot of times, so we just have to figure out how to stay in there, press over the net and keep the ball on their side. I don’t know how many blocking errors we had, but a lot of the times we were right there and the ball was just going off our hands and out of bounds. Credit it to their hitters, though, because they were using us like they were supposed to. Defensively, we made some big plays. We just didn’t make them every time we needed to. Ozark is a good program and we just kind of ended up on the wrong side of it.”
Joplin falls to 12-9-1, 1-3 COC on the season, while Ozark improves to 16-5, 3-1 COC.
GAME ACTION
Ozark jumped out to a 7-3 lead in the opening game thanks to three quick kills and a block from Skylar Hilton as well as a kill from Reagan Baade.
Joplin rallied back to tie the game at 11-11 after a kill and a block from Bailey Owens, but a six-point service run from Ozark’s Alexis Andela, which included a block from Sophie Morris and a kill from Tara Venable, sent the Tigers to a 20-14 advantage and eventual win in the opening set.
“When we get rattled, sometimes our serve receive doesn’t go where we need it to go,” Felker said. “They were putting a lot of pressure on us at the net and from the service line. It just didn’t go the way we wanted it to tonight.”
The Tigers played in for much of the second set, building an early 11-5 lead off a kill from Venable and a kill from Morris. Back to back kills from Owens later in the set cut Joplin’s deficit to 14-12, but Ozark answered with the next three points that included a kill from Venable and a block from Hilton pushed the lead back to five, 17-12. Following a Joplin sideout, Venable forced one of her own with a kill before Anna Howe ripped off the last seven points in service to end the second set. Venable had two kills in the run, which also included an ace by Howe and a block from Morris.
“They did a really good job of working the ball around our defense,” Felker said. “They also did a good job of reading our hitters on the other side of the net, which makes it tricky when you are trying to go on a run.”
Ozark pushed out to a 10-4 lead in the third set before a three-point service run from Abby Edwards cut Joplin’s deficit to 12-9. The Tigers pushed the lad to 17-11 on consecutive kills from Baade. Joplin cut the lead to 18-16 late but that would be as close as the Eagles would get as the Tigers answered with a sideout before back to back kills from Venable jump started a four-point service run by Macy Humble that ended with a Venable kill to put Ozark in front 23-16. A block from Morris and an ace by Reece Cook closed out the set and match.
STATS
Owens had 11 kills, three blocks and two digs to lead Joplin. Paisley Parker, Abby Hembree, Serafina Auberry and Raelin Calderon each had two kills. Hembree added 11 assists and Parker had 10 digs. Jayla Hunter had a team-high 14 digs.
UP NEXT
Joplin travels to Carl Junction on Tuesday before visiting Willard on Thursday.
