With the Waynesville Tigers having two very good middle hitters, the Jefferson City Lady Jays knew slowing them down would be a key. And for a while, the Lady Jays did that.
But just for a while.
Waynesville's 1-2 punch of Ariel Okori and Kallie Bildner eventually heated up and propelled the Tigers to a 25-20, 25-15 win Thursday at Fleming Fieldhouse.
"We started out that first set and we were getting some good blocks on them and slowing them down a bit," Jefferson City coach Lisa Hoffmeyer said. "But then our block just faded. They were working over the small side of our block and we just weren't able to stop them."
Errors were plentiful at the beginning of the night, as the teams combined for 10 of them during the first 13 points. Right about the time the teams cleaned things up, Waynesville started to pull away.
The Lady Jays held a 10-6 lead before a kill by Okori, a track and field standout who has Division I offers from several high-profile schools and an offer to compete in both track and volleyball from Missouri State.
That's when Bildner, who will be playing basketball at Lindenwood University starting next season, rotated to the front row and came up with three kills to help Waynesville tie it at 12.
After another tie at 13, Bildner went back to serve and got four straight points, one on an ace, and Waynesville never trailed again.
"For us, it just was a mental decision tonight," Hoffmeyer said. "We didn't play very mentally tough. We rolled over for them a little bit and made their life a whole lot easier. It was not a real strong representation of the Jay Pride we speak of all the time."
Then came a disastrous start to the second set, as the Lady Jays fell behind 6-0 and never recovered.
"We made one switch in our lineup and honestly, we did not adjust well," Hoffmeyer said. "The girls really need to have run things over and over and I guess I should know that about them by now. But I thought, "This is as simple a switch as it gets because we subbed one kid in the front fow and we should be able to make this adjustment.'
"... For this group, we need to have practiced it and slowed it down and talked about how, "This is our first rotation and this is where you should be, this is our second rotation and this is where you should be.' It's a shame, I wish we didn't have to do that. But we are just not able to make adjustments on the fly like I wish we could."
Waynesville eventually went up 23-10 before Jefferson City burned its final timeout. The Lady Jays then ripped off five straight points, including two of them on back-to-back kills by Mary Wehmeyer off assists from Janice Steacy, but the Tigers won the final two points to close it out.
"That's a conversation we had (after that 5-0 run) - had we played that way from zeroes, we would have been walking home with a win tonight," Hoffmeyer said.
Wehmeyer paced the Lady Jays with four kills and three blocks, while Steacy dished out 10 assists. Cameryn Campbell had 13 digs.
Bildner had seven kills for the Tigers and Okori ended up with six.
Jefferson City (2-5) returns to action Monday at Lebanon.
In the JV match, Jefferson City posted a 25-18, 23-25, 25-16 win.
Stephanie Fisher had nine kills for the Lady Jays (5-2) and Veronica Allison had 11 assists. Tori LePage and Emma Gretlein had 20 service points apiece.
Jefferson City won the freshman match 25-20, 25-18.
Morgan Surls had five aces for the Lady Jays (2-5), Micah Linthacum had five kills and Maddie Jones had 10 assists.
The freshman and JV teams both play Saturday, hosting the Jefferson City JV Tournament and playing at the Helias Freshman Tournament.