Driven by a nearly perfect performance on the court in the opening set Thursday night, the Kickapoo Lady Chiefs blitzed Ozark Conference foe Rolla in straight sets (25-5, 25-17) in Springfield.
Kickapoo (7-3) made it abundantly clear early on that it was its match for the taking – utilizing a well-balanced combination of digs and assists to put the Lady Bulldogs (3-1) in a deep first-set hole before they even knew what hit them.
“It was incredible, and it's because of our outstanding defense and our setters,” Kickapoo senior middle hitter Allison Long said of the dominant first set. “We can put it all together and just let the hitters do what they want with the ball.”
Senior Kamryn Artale and junior Leah Vokolek, who combined to tally 18 digs in the match, played pivotal roles in keeping Rolla off the scoreboard and turning impressive saves into points for the home squad in the first stanza.
By the time Rolla finally nabbed its fifth point of the set, the Lady Chiefs were just two points away from the win.
“We rely on our defense to keep the ball up a lot,” said Kickapoo head coach Marci Johnson. “We put a lot of pressure on them to make good plays and I thought they did a good job tonight.”
Rolla made vast improvements in the second set, hanging tight with the Lady Chiefs and forcing a 12-12 tie at one point, but Kickapoo managed to score 13 of the set's final 18 points to end a quick night of volleyball.
The remarkable showing in the opening set also opened up an opportunity for Kickapoo to try some new things in the second set, which was likely another reason for a drastically closer contest in round two as the Lady Chiefs fell victim to some unforced mistakes.
“We were trying to speed up our offense a little bit,” Johnson added. “There are going to be a little bit of errors whenever you try to do stuff like that to advance your game.”
Long, who came away with a team-high eight kills on Thursday for Kickapoo, couldn't help but give additional credit for such a successful night to the high-level of camaraderie and drive woven into the team.
“I think we have a lot of team chemistry,” Long said. “We work together really well, we always know where everyone is and we just put all of our effort into it every time.”
