jmetcalfe@delphosherald.com

SPENCERVILLE — The St. John’s volleyball team had a 5-set loss to Van Wert — after leading 2-0 — in Monday’s opener.
Tuesday was a bit easier as the Lady Blue Jays evened their season at 1-1 with a 25-21, 25-11, 25-15 sweep of Spencerville at Spencerville High School.
After starting out quickly in their opener, the Jays struggled a little more out of the gate Tuesday against a Lady Bearcat team opening its season. The teams battled on relatively even terms and neither could open up a comfortable lead. In the end, perhaps it was having that match under their collective belt — and its usual first-match jitters — that was the key as the Blue and Gold had the finishing kick — a 4-0 spurt to close the opening set: a service error on the hosts, two aces by senior Katrina Etzkorn and a sharply-angled cross-court kill from left to right by senior Bailie Hulihan (9 aces); to go up a set.
“We didn’t start out as well tonight as we did Monday. We finished better; we stressed that before the match tonight,” St. John’s coach Kellie Sterling said. “We didn’t let a team hang around and come from behind on us tonight. The one area we improved greatly was our serving tonight. We had more aces and not as many service errors. That cost us last night and helped us tonight.”