The Capital City Lady Cavaliers had a knack for avenging losses this volleyball season.
Capital City won rematches against School of the Osage, Boonville and Eugene. Heading into Thursday night's Class 5 District 9 Tournament opener against Sedalia Smith-Cotton, the last thing the Lady Cavaliers wanted to do was let the Tigers avenge their regular-season loss.
And they didn't.
"We did a good job of taking control and making sure they did not win," Capital City coach Kelsey Vogler said after a 25-18, 28-26, 25-15 win at Rackers Fieldhouse.
Thursday's win was Capital City's first postseason victory in three tries. The Lady Cavaliers lost to Southern Boone and Helias in their previous district openers.
"Going past the first night and continuing on is a big accomplishment," Vogler said. "I'm proud, especially for them to pull it out in three tonight instead of making us go four or five."
Capital City defeated Smith-Cotton 25-12, 25-15, 25-7 on Oct. 7 in their Central Missouri Activities Conference match. However, it was the Tigers' first time on the court in 12 days due to COVID-19 concerns.
"They still had five players out the first time we saw them, so we knew it was going to be a different game tonight," Vogler said. "We definitely talked about that this week, that they were going to bring a stronger team at us."
Serving gave Capital City the momentum in the first set. The Lady Cavaliers led 5-1, then Smith-Cotton led 7-5, before Grace Marshall served an ace and Ruby Sprenger served back-to-back aces to put Capital City back in front 14-11.
"Grace went on a roll, she found a spot and was listening to coach (McKenzie) Bennett's spot zones," Vogler said. "She really hit them well tonight."
Capital City broke a tie at 16, ending the first set on a 9-2 run.
Ava Meinhardt had four of her team-high 10 kills in the second set, spiking a free ball to extend the Lady Cavaliers' lead to 17-12.
"We needed her a lot," Vogler said. "We were kind of struggling, and Ava came out strong and she said, 'No, I'm taking this district win.' She did a very good job of controlling the front net."
Kills by Kiara Strayhorn and Reagan Carel gave Capital City set point at 24-14. A service error gave the ball back to Smith-Cotton, and the Tigers fended off set point with three aces, a kill by Briara Jackson and five Capital City errors to tie the score at 24.
Capital City served for set point at 25-24 and 26-25, but the Lady Cavaliers didn't clinch until after a Smith-Cotton hitting error, followed by an ace from Addison Jones to take a two-set lead.
"Maybe it was my fault, because we had a goal of keeping them to 15 points in the second set," Vogler said. "Maybe that put too much pressure on them.
"Sedalia did a great job of fighting back and not giving up."
Capital City took advantage of 10 Smith-Cotton errors in the third set.
"Luckily we got our stuff back together and started putting the ball in play on their side, allowing them to make the errors instead of us making errors," Vogler said.
Marshall and Carel each had 12 assists, while Carel had a team-high 10 digs and Strayhorn added nine. Meinhardt finished with four blocks and Marshall served four aces for the Lady Cavaliers.
Jackson and Bailey Brown each had three kills for Smith-Cotton, which ends its season with a 5-17-1 record. Paige Abney served three aces.
Several teams concluded their regular season with a match Monday or Tuesday. Capital City had not played since Saturday's Versailles Tournament, opting to use those last few days of the regular season for extra practices.
"We had all of our players here and healthy," Vogler said. "We focused on quality over quantity in our reps, and we really looked at what we needed to take care of and what we needed to control going into this match tonight."
Capital City (13-14-4), the No. 4 seed in the district, advances to face top-seeded Rock Bridge (30-4) in the semifinals at 1 p.m. Saturday. The Bruins won 25-13, 25-14, 25-14 in their CMAC match last month in Columbia.
"They know what's ahead of them, and they're ready for the challenge," Vogler said. "They're going to have to play better than they did tonight, obviously, but they want it."
No. 2 Helias (23-9-2) will face No. 3 Camdenton (18-11-1) in the second semifinal at 3 p.m. Saturday.