DELPHOS-Both St. John’s and Spencerville looked to get back into the win column on Monday night at the Vatican. St. John’s took a late lead in the opening set and didn’t look back as they picked up the win in straight sets.
“It was a slow start for our girls tonight,” said St. John’s head coach Jessica Geise. “We had a rough time getting our passes up but I told our girls that they had to play their game and focus on what they needed to do and they came out fired up and ready to go.”
Kelsey Lee got the Bearcats on the board first with a kill to grab a 1-0 lead and the lead grew to three at 7-4 on a block by Briley Cook. The Blue Jays were able to grab the lead at 11-10 before a Kaitlyn Keller ace knocked it at 12. Madilyn Conley gave the Blue Jays a 13-12 but the Bearcats came back to grab a lead on a couple of side outs.
Following a St. John’s timeout, the host came back as an ace by Emma Will gave the Blue Jays a 21-19 lead and never looked back to win set one 25-21.
“It was really important that we got off to a really good start in the first set and we were working really hard and clicking together but for the next few points we kind of died down and we weren’t playing to our potential tonight.” Said Spencerville head coach Keeley Layman.
St. John’s had all the momentum in set 2. An ace by Grace Moenter gave the hosts a 1-0 lead. An attack play from Laila Sites expanded the lead to 4-1 and the lead grew to 6-1 before a timeout from the visitors. A block by Cook kept the lead under single digits before a couple of side outs gave the hosts a commanding double digit lead to win the set.
“I told the girls going into the second set that our goal was no more than two serves,” said Geise. “The girls did a great job of getting that done and going to the next point.”
Teams went back and forth in the final set before the Blue Jays pulled away for good. An attack from Kaitlyn Keller tied at one before a kill from Sites gave the hosts the lead at 4-3. An ace Kayla Beining gave St. John’s an 8-5 lead. This led to a scoring run to push the lead to 13-5 before a Bearcat timeout.
“We tried to get the girls back in it when they would go on a run and that first pass was a killer for us tonight and we are going to work on that in practice.” Said Layman.
An ace from Grace Moenter grew the lead to 15-7 and the lead would grow to double digits on an ace from Abby Kerner to make it 19-8. The ‘Cats would get within 19-10 before the hosts ran away to win the match in straight sets.
St. John’s improves to 2-2 and will begin MAC play on Thursday when they host New Knoxville.
“We have New Knoxville coming up on Thursday and we have some things that we have to work on like getting around blocks, better serve receive and we have things to work on.” Concluded Geise.
Spencerville drops to 2-3 and will return to action on September 5th when they visit Waynesfield-Goshen.
Spencerville 21 11 11
St. John’s 25 25 25
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