Lady Jays volleyball falls to St. Joseph's Academy

Tatum Gaines (left) of Jefferson City taps the ball past Lauren Reding of St. Joseph's
Academy during Saturday afternoon's match at Fleming Fieldhouse.
Tatum Gaines (left) of Jefferson City taps the ball past Lauren Reding of St. Joseph's Academy during Saturday afternoon's match at Fleming Fieldhouse.

Down 22-15 in the second set Saturday afternoon against St. Joseph's Academy, the Jefferson City volleyball team started closing the gap with the help of miscues by the Angels.

The Lady Jays got an ace to get within two before two Angels attacks went out of play to knot it up at 23. But a spike into the net for Jefferson City and an executed play for St. Joseph's Academy completed the straight-set victory for the Angels, 25-18, 25-23 at Fleming Fieldhouse.

It's the fourth straight season opener the Lady Jays have lost in straight sets to the Angels.

"I think we will have the ability to come back from holes you're inevitably going to get yourselves into in volleyball, and respond and still compete with everybody hopefully all year long," Lady Jays coach Lisa Hoffmeyer said.

Jefferson City couldn't put a run together in the first set after a 2-0 lead turned into a 5-2 deficit.

The Lady Jays were able to get within one on eight occasions during the back-and-forth first set. However, the Angels closed it out with five straight points, including a misplaced set to a Lady Jays hitter who could only spike it into the net to award the final point to the Angels.

The Lady Jays' offense was out of sync at times during the match.

"Tatum Gaines is one of our big hitters and she and Bailey Diehl were not firing on all cylinders today," Hoffmeyer said. "That took one of our big offensive weapons kind of out of our attack. Timing was just off."

The first two points of the second set went to the Angels, including their sixth of eight service aces on the day.

"The biggest thing we talked about is our serve-receive," Hoffmeyer said. "They had a couple strong, hard, jump servers and we just weren't getting there and getting under the ball and let a couple kids get to us a few too many times. I think that second set there we responded a little better."

The Angels led 4-1 before Gaines had consecutive blocks. Corrin Lepper later added a block to keep Jefferson City within one. Lepper and Samantha Murray later teamed up to block an Angels attack to take an 8-7 lead.

"We knew they were going to be a fast-paced offense so closing the block was a big point of emphasis for preparing for this game," Hoffmeyer said. "A pretty good job. We saw a couple splits in that second set more than we did in the first set, so hopefully we can get that cleared up."

The Lady Jays either led or were tied until a kill for Madison Gresham of St. Joseph's Academy made it 13-12 in favor of the Angels.

Jefferson City wasn't able to even up the score until its 8-1 run late in the set tied it at 23. With Jefferson City down 16-15, the Angels rattled off six consecutive points to tie the largest lead of the match.

Next up for the Lady Jays is a road match at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday against the Rock Bridge Bruins, who the Lady Jays defeated in three sets in the first round of districts last season.

The Jefferson City JV team lost 26-24, 25-13. Annabelle Maassen led the Lady Jays with six kills and 10 digs. Maddie Jones recorded seven assists.

The Jefferson City freshman team lost in three sets, 25-20, 8-25, 20-25.