WESTPHALIA - If there's one thing the Fatima volleyball team has proven this season, it's the Lady Comets are a resilient bunch.
They proved it in the early stages of the season, when they lost returning all-region middle hitter Kenadi Huhn to injury and still ran out to a 9-2 record heading into Monday night's home game against Jefferson City.
They proved it again Monday as they rallied from a first-game loss to beat Jefferson City 21-25, 25-20, 25-20.
And unfortunately, they'll have to prove it again, as they lost another middle hitter, Courtney Kempker, to a left-shoulder injury during the third game of the victory.
"The girls are fighters," Fatima coach Mark Bockstruck said. "Unfortunately it keeps putting us in bad positions with getting injured, but they fought hard."
That was never more apparent than on the play where Kempker was injured, as she collided with a teammate on a scramble for a loose ball.
"I tell them I would rather two girls run into each other instead of letting a ball drop, and I guess they took it literally," Bockstruck said. "The good news is it's her left, and not her hitting, shoulder. She's being sent to the hospital tonight and we'll get it checked out. ... We'll have to change up everything again."
The match was extremely close throughout. The first game featured nine ties, the last time at 21.
The Lady Jays finished well, getting a kill and a block on back-to-back points by Mary Wehmeyer, followed by a Fatima hitting error and a block by Cara Caby to end it.
The big blocks continued in the second game, only this time on Fatima's side. Megan Werdehausen got a pair of them on the first two points of that game to get Fatima off to a quick start, and the Lady Comets never trailed the game.
It was tied five times, however, and as late as at 19-all. But a serving error by Jefferson City gave Fatima a key sideout, starting a run of six of the last seven points for the Lady Comets.
After having trouble with hitting at times during the first game, the Lady Comets had 14 kills in the second. Five different players had kills, with Haley Luebbering racking up five and Tara Buthod picking up four.
"They were attacking the ball down the line and we did not make a very good adjustment on it," Jefferson City coach Lisa Hoffmeyer said. "We kept letting them score points with the same ball. We were just not making the defensive adjustments we needed to."
There were six more ties in the final game, the last time at 10 when Fatima erased Jefferson City's final lead of the match on a kill by Buthod.
Fatima the took control with four straight points on the serve of Emily Keilholz, three of them aces.
That came not long after Kempker left on a point the Lady Jays won to take a 9-8 advantage.
"We're a small school, we don't have the depth (to cope with a bunch of injuries)," Bockstruck said. "But Amber (Eisterhold) came in and she got a kill on the first play she was in. Shaina (Boehm) and Kaitlin (Peters) have had some opportunities working in at the middle, so it was something we could adjust to. It worked out OK."
Hoffmeyer said she would have like to have seen better composure from her team in the final two games.
"We were not sticking together very well," she said. "We kind of looked like a separated group, so hopefully that will change."
She added the team is working hard in practice on overcoming deficits.
"That seems to be a spot we've been getting ourselves in lately," she said. "For us, it's a matter of being confident early and trying to get things going so we can settle in and get comfortable. We've proven to ourselves a few times we do not play great from behind. We have to find a way to get on top early."
Luebbering amassed a match-high 16 kills to lead Fatima to the victory.
"She's becoming our go-to player," Bockstruck said. "She's definitely proven to our setters she's someone we can count on who's going to be aggressive on every play where she has an opportunity.
"She's the only six-rotation player we have on the team, and she takes her position very seriously. I'm very happy to have her back from last year. She's a hard worker and a great leader."
Buthod added 10 kills for the Lady Comets, while Werdehausen had four blocks. Kielholz had 18 assists and five aces, while Courtney Wolfe had 14 assists.
The Lady Jays (3-5-1) were led by Wehmeyer's 12 kills and two blocks. Maggie Albert had 22 assists, while Mary Vandelicht had seven kills.
In the JV match, Fatima captured a 27-29, 26-24, 25-19 victory.
Olivia Hart had 14 service points for the Lady Jays (5-6), Arielle Guitard added 11 digs and Amber Runkle had 2 blocks.
Jefferson City won the freshman match 24-26, 25-10, 25-8.
Samantha Murray had five kills for the Lady Jays (4-1), Veronica Allen had six aces and Corrin Lepper and Emma Gretlein had three blocks apiece.