WARDSVILLE - Despite having a perfect record, Joy Northweather believes her team hasn't performed at the highest level possible through the first few games of the season.
And that's OK with the Blair Oaks head coach - as long as the Lady Falcons keep progressing throughout the year.
"We have been a little hesitant with everything and not playing with a lot of fire," Northweather said. "I think we've been playing a little bit on edge and not with a lot of poise and confidence."
That wasn't the case Thursday as Blair Oaks rolled to a 25-5, 25-6 win against Warsaw at Blair Oaks Middle School.
"This is the first time where I had six girls on the court for most of the match that wanted every point - that didn't want to give up any points," Northweather said. "That's what we need every night. We have to have that hunger to score every point we can, attack every ball we can, to cover everything. It came together tonight."
Blair Oaks, which is now 4-0, jumped out to an 11-1 lead in the first set and the Lady Falcons didn't look back from there.
"Volleyball is such an emotional game," Northweather said. "For us to have things going right in the first set, it's huge."
Warsaw never dug itself out of the hole, and the Lady Wildcats weren't able to score consecutive points throughout the contest.
The Lady Falcons weren't focused on that.
"I think we just looked at it as getting the ball back each time we could," senior setter Lizzie Rosslan said. "When a player makes a mistake, the team just has to pick them back up and move on from that mistake."
Blair Oaks extended its lead to 17-2 in the first set after getting three aces form Allison Maxwell. Maddie Abbott had one of her team-leading four kills and Shelbi Koelling delivered an ace to cap a 4-0 run to give the Lady Falcons the 25-5 victory in the opening set.
They didn't let up after that.
"That was one of our goals tonight, not have that second-set lag where we're going out there with maybe a little bit of over-confidence," Northweather said. "I was very pleased to see tonight, they were not going to let up that second set. They came out ready to go and picked up right where we left off."
Ryan Dudenhoeffer and Abbott led off the second set with back-to-back kills, and Rosslan followed with an ace to give the Lady Falcons a 3-0 lead.
Warsaw won the next point, but Blair Oaks continued to control the tempo.
"We were keeping up our intensity level and staying as a team," Abbott said.
The Lady Falcons used a 9-0 run to take an 18-4 lead, then strung together four straight points to extend the lead to 22-5.
Following a hitting error by Warsaw, Abbott and Dudenhoeffer delivered back-to-back kills to put the Lady Wildcats away.
Maxwell had three kills, while Rebecca Schroeder added three. Rosslan led Blair Oaks with six assists and Sadie Turner chipped in with three.
Maxwell also led the Lady Falcons with five aces, while Dudenhoeffer and Taylor Stockman each added two.
Blair Oaks will compete in the West Plains Tournament on Saturday.
"It was a good match for us to lead into the weekend," Northweather said. "Hopefully we'll be able to maintain that intensity, that poise, that level of comfort and confidence on the court."
Added Abbott: "I definitely think we have some room to grow and get better. We're still getting to know each other as a team."
The Blair Oaks junior varsity team earned a 26-24, 25-9 win against the Lady Wildcats.
Kellie Fredendall had five kills, while Lanie Berhorst chipped in with four. Jayde Peters and Emily Yaeger both tallied six assists, while Victoria Turner and Peters had six aces apiece.
The Lady Falcons are now 4-0 on the year.
In the freshman game, Blair Oaks won 25-10, 25-17.
Kylie Wieberg and Jaydn Anderson both recorded three kills, while Ali Juergensmeyer and Anderson both tallied three assists. Wieberg finished with four aces to help pace the Lady Falcons (1-0).