St. John’s rout Kenton

By Jim Metcalfe, The Delphos Herald
Published:  Wednesday, September 3, 2008 (3 months ago)
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DELPHOS — St. John’s volleyball coach Kaila Cook had to be a bit concerned with how her team might play after Thursday’s first-ever win over St. Henry when they faced Kenton Saturday morning.
She didn’t need to, especially after she gave her team a talking-to early in game 1.
After that, the Lady Blue Jays (4-0) steamrolled the Wildcats 25-11, 25-4, 25-9 at Robert A. Arnzen Gymnasium.
“The girls were on adrenaline and emotion all day Friday after Thursday’s win. It took a while for it to finally hit them,” Cook began.
Saturday mornings can be a tough time to play anyway but when the Lady Wildcats got off to a 6-3 start on an ace by Charlotte Anderson, Cook called time.
“I won’t tell you what I told them but the girls did a nice job of refocusing. They pulled it together, eliminated the mistakes and played the game the way we can,” Cook explained. “It really helps when we can set all three positions up front and girls out of the back row. It’s so important to have that variety so a team can’t load up against one player.”
Whatever she told the troops, it worked. A kill by senior Nicole Wallenhorst (5 kills, 3 blocks) got it going and an 8-0 burst with junior Kristina Franks (8 assists) at the serve (2 of her 5 aces) put them in command. Between the attack led by junior Lindsy Reindel (11 kills, 9 blocks) and Kenton struggling to find the range against the big front wall of the Jays, it was a matter of time. A stuff by Wallenhorst gave the hosts a 1-0 lead.
Game 2 was never in doubt. An 8-0 spurt — 7 on serves by Brittany Miller (17 assists) — led by two stuffs from Reindel put the Blue and Gold in command. A 6-0 spurt — 5 on the serves of Mycalah Jackson (3 aces) — and another 8-0 span — 7 on Hannah Ricker’s service (2 aces; 8 digs overall) propelled the Jays. A kill off a back-row defender by Reindel put the hosts up 2-0.
With senior Ashley Jettinghoff (9 kills) getting untracked in game 3, the Jays got on a roll to finish the sweep. She even threw in a pair of aces out of the Jays’ six in the game — the team totaled 14 overall — and when Reindel put down a bomb on match point, it was over.
The Jays did commit nine service errors, a figure Cook doesn’t like.
“For three games, that’s way too many; over five games, that might be more acceptable,” Cook added. “I like that we’re being aggressive and going after it; I can live with a few mistakes there. At the same time, we will get into tough matches and we need to get the serve in then.”
The Jays visit defending Division III state champion LCC 6 p.m. (JV start) Wednesday.
In the JV ranks, the hosts (3-1) romped 25-11, 25-3.