LIMA — The St. John’s at Lima Central Catholic volleyball matchup Wednesday night shaped up as an early-season tussle for area small-school supremacy.
Unfortunately for the Lady Blue Jays, head coach Kaila Cook didn’t feel her team brought its best as the host Lady Thunderbirds (5-0) downed their feathered foe 22-25, 25-17, 25-14, 25-23 in a steamy Msgr. E. C. Herr Gymnasium.
“We had a lot of mental and physical errors. We didn’t hit like I know we can, like we did against St. Henry last Thursday,” Cook began. “We didn’t hit with authority consistently, nor could we get anything going offensively on a consistent basis. We just didn’t play as well as we have.”
The Jays (4-1) seemed to have troubles offensively from the start, not quite finding their hitting rhythm regularly against the defending Division III state champions. For that matter, neither did the hosts, at least in game 1. In fact, a serving error — LCC’s seventh of the game out of a total of 16 — on game point put the Jays up 1-0.
“We didn’t warm up very well but that isn’t necessarily an indication of how a team will play,” Cook continued. “I felt we came out aggressively and hard in the opener and did OK. LCC made their on-court adjustments after that; we didn’t seem to.”
LCC started to find the range in game 2, with the likes of Danielle Taflinger (13 kills, 14 blocks) and Kacy Querry (11 kills, 10 blocks) leading the charge. Nicole Wallenhorst (12 kills, 9 blocks), Lindsy Reindel (9 kills, 12 blocks) and Denise Knippen (7 kills) tried to rally the Blue and Gold but LCC took the momentum with a 6-0 spurt to go from 16-15 up to 22-15. A kill by JoJo Krieg (11 kills, 8 digs) evened the match at a game apiece.
LCC took control of game 3 early in building a 10-3 advantage and the Jays could not answer. This time, setter Alexis Diglio (48 assists) turned to Rachael Illig (16 kills) to lead the home team as the Thunderbirds pulled away. An unreturned serve by Abbie Mooney put the hosts up 2-1.
The Jays were not done as they began to slow down the LCC attack in game 4 and started to show signs of getting their hitting attack untracked. Neither team could get much of a lead in the sequence — the biggest spread being four — as the spurts never really came. Tied at 23, a hitting error by the Jays put LCC up and when Taflinger stifled a Reindel attempt and put it to the floor behind the Jays’ back row, that was the match.
“LCC seemed to be one step ahead of us all night long. If we didn’t hit hard, they quick-set us and caught our defense off-guard,” Cook added. “Our passing definitely was not very good tonight. Any time we seemed to get some momentum, we’d make a crucial mistake and it cost us.”
Hannah Ricker (19 digs) and Ashley Jettinghoff (13 digs, 7 kills) led the Jays’ defense, along with Mycalah Jackson (8 digs). Brittany Miller had 20 assists and Kristina Franks 12.
The Jays visit Parkway for a 6 p.m. JV start tonight.
In the JV ranks, the Jays moved to 4-1 with a 26-24, 17-25, 25-18 thriller over LCC (1-4).