CARL JUNCTION, Mo. — Webb City volleyball earned its first Central Ozark Conference victory, which was also a district win, in its conference opener with a 3-0 sweep over short-handed Carl Junction on Tuesday.
The Cardinals (11-2-1, 1-0 COC) opened with a 25-19 win in the first set before holding off the Bulldogs 25-22 in the second set for a 2-0 lead. Webb City built an early lead in the third set and never looked back on the way to a 25-12 sweep-clinching win.
“In the first and third set, I was pretty happy with (our play),” Webb City coach Rhonda Lawrence said. “In the second set, we started making some mental errors, so we have to lock in on that. (Carl Junction) showed us some of our weaknesses that we are going to have to work on a little bit harder. (The Bulldogs) are playing without Logan Jones right now and that makes a huge difference to their whole team and I hate that for her, but I am just glad to get our first conference win under our belt. We just have to continue to get better each game.”
Carl Junction—playing without senior setter Lo Jones, an Arkansas commit, who is healing from an injury—falls to 5-5-1, 0-1 COC on the season.
“We are obviously a different team without Logan, but I thought we did some of the right things to get ourselves in a position to get the right swings,” Carl Junction coach Cheryl Sharples said. “I thought we passed fairly solid and were in the spots to dig some of their hitters. Their setter did a good job of getting their hitters one one one, which made us struggle a little bit.”
GAME ACTION
The middle hitters made an early impact for Webb City in the first game, setting the tone at the net for nearly the entire match. The Cardinals jumped out to a 7-3 fueled by a kill from Aubree Lassiser to go along with a kill and a block from Jaeli Rutledge, with Brenda Lawrence and Kate Brownfield also contributing kills.
“Whenever they are slowing down a ball or we can feed the middle and get more production out of them, that helps to open up our outsides, too,” Coach Lawrence said. “It was nice to be able to lean on them a little bit tonight. We haven’t had to do that yet, so it was a great experience for them.”
Webb City pushed the lead to 11-5 before a sideout and back to back kills from Carl Junction’s Kylie Scott to time the margin to three. A kill from Lassiter pushed the lead to 14-10 before a three-point service run by Lassiter, with Lassiter and Rutledge each earning a kill, after a pair of sideouts made the score 18-11—more than enough cushion on the way to the first-set win.
“We struggled in serve receive early in sets,” Sharples said. “We just had to dig and fight our way back into the match. That kind of took a little bit out of us.”
Webb City used an early four-point service run in the second set by Brenda Lawrence to build the advantage but to Carl Junction’s credit, each team the Cardinals looked as if they would pull away, the Bulldogs rallied.
After a block from Rutledge put WCHS in front 14-8, Carl Junction scored six of the next eight points, including two kills from Karissa Chase and an ace from Scott, to cut the deficit to 16-14. Webb City answered with the next four points, including an ace from Brownfield, to go up 20-14. Once again the Bulldogs rallied with a sideout kill from Destiny Buerge before Buerge scored five straight points in service to tie the game at 20-20. Scott had two kills, while Adia Kennedy had a block.
“I was proud of them in that second set,” Sharples said. “I thought they were fighting and competing at that point in time. Even late in the first set, I feel like we kind of started that mentality. That’s what I kept telling them, ‘Just get better each point and don’t worry about the score.’ I thought we focused well on that in the second set. In the third set, I thought we focused a little too much on the score.”
The Cardinals used a sideout followed by kills from Kyah Sanborn and Lassiter to go up three before a pair of WCHS errors cut the margin back to one. Webb City finished off the second set with a kill from Lassiter and a kill from Rutledge.
“I think that shows that we have kind of been there before,” Coach Lawrence said. “To have so many returners back on the floor, it helps us not get rattled. We’ve really challenged ourselves on the mental side of the game. Other teams are going to go on runs, we just have to stick to what we do well. … I think we have done a good job of doing that.”
After a 2-1 start to the third set, Webb City took all the momentum after scoring eight of the following nine points to take a commanding 10-2 lead. Brownfield had two kills to go along with a kill from Rutledge.
Following three consecutive sideouts made up of a kill by Chase, then Brownfield before a kill from Buerge, CJ committed four straight errors before a kill from Lassiter pushed the lead to 16-4. The Cardinals made it 20-6 on a kill from Lassiter and an ace from Brenda Lawrence before a kill from Brownfield and an error on CJ made the score 22-7. Both teams traded blows from there before Webb City put the sweep away with a kill from Lawrence.
“Kate is super athletic and that makes her job a little easier,” Coach Lawrence said of Brownfield’s ability to take over offensively in the third set. “She sees the floor really well, which helps her find great holes (in the defense). … The more confident she grew with the things that were working, it made everyone want to feed her the ball more, too.”
STATS
Lassiter had 12 kills, 10 digs and a block, while Brownfield finished with 10 kills and seven digs. Rutledge had seven kills and two blocks, while Sanborn had 31 assists and 11 digs. Sophia Crane had 10 digs, with Brenda Lawrence adding five kills and two aces and five digs.
Scott had 13 kills for Carl Junction, while Miya Carnes had 26 assists. Buerge finished with eight kills.
UP NEXT
Both teams take part in the Carl Junction Classic on Saturday.
