Capital City volleyball falls to Battle in CMAC action

The Capital City volleyball team runs onto the court prior to the start of Thursday's match against Battle at Capital City High School. (Kyle McAreavy/News Tribune)
The Capital City volleyball team runs onto the court prior to the start of Thursday's match against Battle at Capital City High School. (Kyle McAreavy/News Tribune)

Capital City couldn’t get started.

The Lady Cavaliers fell behind by at least four points early in every set on the way to a 19-25, 25-22, 23-25, 17-25 loss to the Battle Spartans in Central Missouri Activities Conference action Thursday at Capital City High School.

The Spartans jumped out to a 5-1 lead in the opening set after the first of Henley Tarwater’s three blocks, but the Cavaliers used three consecutive Battle attack errors and a Kalley Brase kill off one of Grace Marshall’s team-high 30 assists to cut the lead to 7-6.

Battle extended again to a 14-7 advantage after Capital City made four consecutive unforced errors.

The Cavaliers got back within 14-11 after Marshall assisted Ruby Sprenger for one of her team-high 12 kills, then stayed within a couple of points of the Spartans to a 19-17 deficit.

The Lady Cavaliers faced the error issue again, with three consecutive pushing the Spartans to a 23-17 lead. Jessica Alverson-Freese then dished one of her 32 assists to Ayanna Miles for one of her eight kills to end the first set 25-19.

The Spartans took advantage of more Capital City errors to jump ahead 6-2 to start the second set, then built to a 12-4 lead after an Avery Wheeler ace and a Alverson-Freese assist to Jordyn Butler for one of her 18 kills.

But this time, the Lady Cavaliers fought back.

Marshall dished an assist to Reagan Carel for a kill, then Addison Jones turned one of her 15 digs into an assist to Marshall on a fake set for a kill. Marshall dished another assist to Sprenger to bring the Lady Cavaliers within 12-7.

After a couple of back-and-forth points, Capital City took advantage of consecutive Battle attack errors and a Sprenger kill of a Marshall assist to cut the deficit to 14-12.

The Lady Cavaliers came all the way back to tie after a Sprenger ace serve and a Battle attack error, then took a 16-15 lead after another Spartan error.

“We talked in between games and in timeouts, we focused on going on our runs and cutting their runs short,” Capital City coach Kelsey Vogler said. “We had to reduce our unforced errors and keep our servers in position longer.”

The teams went back and forth to a tie at 18, then Capital City took a 21-18 lead after a Carel ace, and built to a 24-20 lead after Marshall assisted Ava Meinhardt for one of her 11 kills.

Marshall assisted Brase for the set-ending kill to claim the second set 25-22.

Battle jumped in front 6-2 to start the third set after a pair of Capital City attack errors, then the Lady Cavaliers came back to tie at nine and took a 10-9 lead when Marshall assisted Sprenger for three consecutive kills.

Battle took back the lead and jumped ahead 13-11 after a Butler solo block, then built to an 18-12 lead after a Janaya Weitkemper solo block.

Battle stayed at least three points in front to build a 24-19 lead, but the Lady Cavaliers used a Spartan attack error to retake the serve.

Marshall connected on an ace, then the Spartans hit consecutive attack errors to bring the Lady Cavaliers within 24-23, but a Capital City attack error ended the set with Battle in front 25-23.

The Spartans jumped in front quickly in the fourth set, taking a 5-0 advantage and building it to a 9-3 lead before Marshall assisted Carel to get Carel the serve for the Lady Cavaliers.

Carel served three consecutive aces to bring the Lady Cavaliers within 9-7, then Carel and Addison Jones kept an incredibly long point alive with saves well behind the service line, leading to a Battle attack error to get the Lady Cavaliers within 9-8.

“They just continued to do their job,” Vogler said. “We focused in. We executed our serve, our pass and our kill. We hit shots we were focused on.”

The Spartans then scored seven of the next nine points to build a 16-9 lead, then built it as far as 22-11.

The Lady Cavaliers fought back to 22-15 after Marshall assisted Brase for a kill, but Battle stayed in front by at least seven points to take the final set 25-17.

Sprenger and Carel each added 12 digs for Capital City’s defense.

The loss was Capital City’s sixth in a row. The Lady Cavaliers (7-10-1, 0-4 CMAC) will try to get back on track when they go on the road to face Hallsville at 7 p.m. Monday.

“We’ve talked about pushing ourselves out of our comfort zone, doing our jobs and being competitors on every single point,” Vogler said. “… We’re focused on competing on every single point the rest of the season.”

Battle (11-5, 1-2 CMAC) will try to extend its three-game winning streak against Sedalia Smith-Cotton at 6:30 p.m. Monday.

Capital City won the junior varsity match 25-19, 25-16 to improve its record to 14-6-4.

Jada Anderson led the Lady Cavaliers with six kills, while Payton Becker had five. Katie Daenick led Capital City with 17 assists and 10 digs, while Aidyn Honse had nine digs.

Capital City improved to .500 in freshman play Thursday with a 25-20, 11-25, 15-9 win to improve its record to 6-6-5.

Kennedie Lutz-Jenkins led the Lady Cavaliers with seven kills, while Tori Nelson had three. Kacie Kuebler served seven aces and dished out 10 assists, while Brooklyn Kerschner had 22 digs.