WARDSVILLE, Mo. - Once Blair Oaks got in a rhythm offensively, it was tough for Fatima to stop it.
The Lady Falcons wrapped up the first set on a 9-1 run and carried that over to the second set to defeat the Lady Comets 25-18, 25-17 on Thursday.
"We came out a little bit flat but then they kind of picked it up after that and we kind of got on a roll," Blair Oaks coach McKenzie Bennett said. "One thing I preached to them is they've got to have energy and once they got that energy they kind of kicked it in gear and got going."
Fatima got out to a 4-0 lead to begin the match but back-to-back kills by Mariah Radmacher later closed the gap to 7-6 Fatima.
Blair Oaks tied it at 8 but Fatima got its advantage to 12-9 after an Ellie Crede kill. The Lady Comets couldn't get their lead to more than three and Blair Oaks eventually tied it at 17 with a kill from Emma Schroeder to begin a 9-1 run that closed out the first set.
"Fatima put up some great offense and some really good defense," Bennett said. "We had to find holes that just weren't there. We had to move quickly, we had set the ball quickly, which meant we had to pass efficiently. They kind of stepped up to that challenge."
Radmacher and Lanie Lowry each added a kill for a 21-17 lead and a Schroeder kill made it 23-18. A Blair Oaks block and a hit out of play by Fatima capped the first set.
"That first set could have went either way, so I was pretty happy with that," Fatima coach Lisa McKim said. "Second set we got in a little trouble with serve-receive, had a bad couple rotations there."
Blair Oaks raced out to a 5-0 lead in the first set and the lead gradually grew from there.
"We were prepared for Fatima to come out and be strong, so we had to get an early lead so we weren't playing catchup the whole time and we could have a little wiggle room for mistakes," Bennett said.
The Lady Falcons' largest lead was nine but a late 6-2 run pulled Fatima within 22-17.
Claire Nilges got it started by tapping the ball over the Blair Oaks front line and Crede added a kill to make it 21-14. Nilges finished with a team-high six kills for Fatima to go with three blocks. Crede had four kills, four digs and two blocks. Allison Samson led the Lady Comets with 11 assists.
"I thought we had a pretty decent comeback late in the game, it just wasn't enough to go against a tough attack team like Blair Oaks," McKim said.
Lowry recorded her fifth and sixth kills of the night in the final three points to seal the match for Blair Oaks.
Radmacher led Blair Oaks with eight kills and Madison Mitchell finished with 20 assists. Tori Martin had six digs from her libero spot and Schroeder added a pair of blocks.
Blair Oaks (18-1-2) hosts Owensville on Monday.
Fatima (6-10) hosts School of the Osage on Tuesday.
Blair Oaks won the JV match 25-10, 25-23 to improve to 19-3-1. Sarah Girard led Blair Oaks with five kills, Paige Henry tallied 19 assists and two blocks, and Molly Juergensmeyer had five digs.
The Lady Falcons also won the freshman match 25-23, 25-19 to improve to 14-1. Kennedy Flanner collected a team-high 10 kills, Madi Rissmiller finished with 20 assists, Raegan Hoecker had four aces, Mallorie Fick tallied six blocks and Payton Mitchell had eight digs.