By Amanda Smallwood
UCA sportswriting
St. Joseph remained undefeated in the 3A-Central Conference after a Tuesday win against Conway Christian in a four-game match, 25-20, 25-13, 16-25, 25-10, at St. Joseph Family Activity Center.
“This was a big win for us,” St. Joseph coach Luke Davis said. “This result puts us as the No. 1 seed in the conference, which will help us in the district tournament.”
St. Joe improved to 16-0 overall, 11-0 in the conference.
In Game 1, the Lady Bulldogs had a tough time keeping Conway Christian’s Lady Eagles from coming back for a win.
With the score 9-8, St. Joseph's Jordan Justice saved the ball with a low dig by the net. After a block by the Lady Eagles, Justice jumped back up and then made a kill to change the score to 10-8.
There were 11 free balls in the first game. At 19-13, St. Joseph's Veronica Bausom and Jordan Justice let the ball fall between them.
“Communication has been a problem for us this season,” Bausom said. “We have made a lot of improvement, but we still have more to grow.”
Sophomore Courtney Briggler delivered four hits, one kill and one block. Bausom recorded one ace, two kills, four hits and two digs. Senior Katie Reinhard had one kill and four hits.
St. Joseph started off the second game strongly. The Lady Bulldogs had made a lot of mistakes in Game 1 with strong hits that were long outs. In Game 2, they started to tip the ball over the net instead of making a hard kill.
“Since the beginning of the season, our skills have improved,” Reinhard said. “As Coach Davis said, we have improved, but we need to be 100 percent to go far this season.”
Reinhard delivered eight straight serves, two digs, one ace and a kill in the game. Junior Katie Halter recorded two kills and three hits. Junior Amy Schichtl had five kills, one tip and one hit.
In Game 3, the Lady Bulldogs started off 5-0. Then with a complete turn, the Lady Bulldogs lost focus, missed balls and made multiple hits into the nets. Lady Bulldogs had six outs to make the score even, 6-6. Then the Lady Eagles took the lead for the first time in the match and did not give it back.
“We made too many mistakes in the third game,” Bausom said. “Our communication toward each other was not good. We have to remember to play as a whole and finish out every game.”
Jessica Justice delivered four assists, one hit, one tip and one ace. Schichtl had two kills, one tip and five hits.
In Game 4, St. Joseph came back determined. Jessica Justice delivered the first serve with Bausom coming back for the Lady Bulldogs with a kill. The Lady Bulldogs did not slow down from the beginning keeping a wide gap.
Halter had four hits and Jessica Justice had eight assist. Courtney Briggler delivered one block, four hits and three kills. Bausom served one ace and added two kills and three hits.
“We have gotten better since the start of the season,” Davis said. “We are not where we need to be for the tournaments. We make too many mistakes and give up too many opportunities.”
St. Joseph will travel to Cave City on Wednesday.
“Playing Cave City and being the actual No. 1 seed for our conference is our main goal right now,” Davis said.
St. Joseph will co-host the district tournament with Conway Christian.
“We are looking forward to play Nemo Vista in the tournament,” Bausom said. “We did not play our best at the last game and every team has improved this season. So we are looking for the challenge.”
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