Lady Jays roll past Smith-Cotton

Jason Strickland/
News Tribune
Maddi Stone of the Jefferson City Lady Jays goes up for a kill during Monday night's vollebyall match against the Sedalia Smith-Cotton Lady Tigers at Fleming Fieldhouse.
Jason Strickland/ News Tribune Maddi Stone of the Jefferson City Lady Jays goes up for a kill during Monday night's vollebyall match against the Sedalia Smith-Cotton Lady Tigers at Fleming Fieldhouse.

From an 0-2 start to a record of 2-2, the Jefferson City volleyball team is playing closer to what it expected coming into the season.

The Lady Jays won their second straight match Monday, defeating defending district champion Sedalia Smith-Cotton 25-9, 25-12 at Fleming Fieldhouse.

Jefferson City lost its first five sets of the season before taking two against Hermann last week for a three-set win, the first of the season. Now the Lady Jays have won four straight sets, only allowing more than 20 in one of them.

"They've kind of had that sense of urgency and now we feel like we're kind of settled in," Lady Jays coach Lisa Hoffmeyer said. "We know what we are capable of doing and we can just go play Lady Jay volleyball."

Jefferson City worked fast to get the lead Monday, taking a 6-0 advantage before the Lady Tigers took a timeout.

Cameryn Campbell made it 7-0 with an ace before Smith-Cotton got on the board with a kill.

The Lady Jays got their lead to 11-3 before three service errors and an attacking error allowed the Lady Tigers to keep pace for a few points.

"Attack errors and service errors has been our nemesis, so we're working on it," Hoffmeyer said.

But the 14-7 lead quickly grew as Jefferson City scored 11 of the final 13 points to take the first set 25-9.

Back-to-back blocks for Tatum Gaines and Corrin Lepper made it 18-7.

Veronica Allison later set Lepper up for a kill for a 24-8 lead.

Smith-Cotton answered with a kill before Stephanie Fisher's kill off an Allison set finished it off.

Allison finished with eight assists while Bailey Diehl led the Lady Jays with nine. Janice Steacy added seven, including one to Lepper to take a 14-7 lead in the second set. It was part of an 11-0 run for the Lady Jays.

"I think we're finally getting that setter-hitter connection," Hoffmeyer said. "They are starting to be a little more comfortable with each other and comfortable with mixing it up and not just coming back with the ole reliable sets. That's kind of an easier ball to block. We're getting more comfortable moving our offense around a little bit."

The teams went back and forth before that run, with Jefferson leading by two twice and Smith-Cotton taking its first lead of the day at 6-5 with an ace.

Jefferson City scored the next two to take the lead back, but an attacking error tied it at 7 before the long run.

Lepper finished with three kills to go with two blocks. Anabelle Maassman also finished with two blocks, including one to make it 19-8 in the second set. Jefferson Cit's 11-0 run was capped off two points before when the Lady Tigers hit one into the net.

Gaines led with four kills. Stone had three.

The second set got to 22-12 before Jefferson City closed it out with the final three points.

The week gets more difficult today as Jefferson City (2-2) host Helias (2-0) at 6:30 p.m.

The Lady Jays then travel to Ozark on Thursday. Helias won a district title last season while Ozark finished third in the state.

Hoffmeyer said the Lady Jays need to cut down on service errors after recording 10 on Monday.

"It'll definitively be a tough week for us," she said. "Helias is kind of a rivalry obviously, so I would assume a packed house tomorrow and we're going to have to earn every single point. If we give them 10, then it's going to be game, set, match. We want to make sure to clean up things on our end."

Jefferson City won the JV match 25-15, 25-20. Ryann Schenewerk led Jefferson City with five assists. Lillian McCutchen and Abigayle LaGore each had three kills.

The Lady Jays freshman team won 25-19, 25-6.