By Kai Raymer (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
One of Clever’s favorite pregame routines is the team dance party.
There are no official winners, just vibes.
“We get together in the locker room, try to shut the lights off and just dance in a circle,” said Clever senior and outside hitter Jenna Thompson. “It helps us have high energy and everything.”
The Lady Jays get to dance on the state’s biggest volleyball stage next week.
Clever swept Mountain Grove 3-0 (25-21, 25-20, 25-19) at home in the Class 3 quarterfinals on Saturday afternoon.
The victory sends Clever to the state volleyball championships for just the second time in program history.
“It’s just an unreal feeling,” said Clever coach Dan Evans. “It doesn’t really set in until a few hours from now. Tomorrow morning, you wake up and realize, ‘Hey, we’ve got another week to go.’ I’m just so proud of this bunch.”
Evans’ daughter, Sarah, played on Clever’s 2011 final four squad.
“I told her my goal is to get my picture on the wall next to hers,” Evans said.
Clever will play Ursuline Academy (15-13 overall), a St. Louis private school, in the Class 3 state semifinals at 10 a.m. Thursday, Nov. 2 at the Show-Me Center in Cape Girardeau.
With a win, Clever would play in the Class 3 state championship game at 10 a.m. Friday.
“It’s unbelievable,” Thompson said. “Words can’t explain how good this feels.”
No Clever High School sports team has ever won a state championship. Clever has 3rd-place finishes in baseball, boys’ basketball and volleyball, plus a runner-up finish in girls’ golf.
The Lady Jays head to Cape brimming with confidence.
“We’ve done a really good job from the beginning of the season to now of changing our mindsets,” said Clever senior Morgan Bos. “It’s gone from, ‘Oh my gosh, ‘I really hope we win’ to ‘We’re going to win.’ We have that competitive mindset now.”
CLICK HERE FOR PHOTOS OF THE MATCH
Evans said sweeping Bolivar and Logan-Rogersville at districts lit a fire under Clever.
“Doing that really gave our team a lot of confidence,” Evans said. “I felt good coming into today. Am I surprised we swept them? A little bit. We got off to a great start and volleyball’s such a game of momentum. When you lose it, it’s hard to get it back.”
Clever, which won 3-0 at St. Clair in the sectional round earlier this week, was ready to roll again on Saturday. The Lady Jays jumped out to a 5-0 lead in the first set and held off a late Mountain Grove rally to go up 1-0.
Clever (31-5-3 overall) led throughout the next two sets as well, a stark turnaround to the regular season meeting between the two schools. Mountain Grove beat Clever 3-2 at home in early October.
“We didn’t feel like we played very well,” Evans said. “We watched a lot of game film from that. In volleyball, it’s so much about a few inches here and there. We felt like we had a better read on them this time.
“If they had beaten us again, they would’ve been a great representative for Southwest Missouri. We’re very fortunate to be the team that goes on.”
Bos, who leads Clever with 343 kills on the season, recently announced her college commitment to play for Missouri State’s beach volleyball team.
Early on in Saturday’s match, she was the target of “overrated” chants from Mountain Grove’s student section.
“I heard it. I tried to tune it out,” Bos said. “I wanted to smack the ball and show them what’s overrated.”
Mountain Grove finishes 26-5-2 overall and graduates four seniors. The Lady Panthers won back-to-back district titles and finished with 20 or more wins for the third straight season.
Lady Panthers junior Raylee Stenzel had nearly 600 kills this season.
Mountain Grove was seeking its first final four berth since 2012 and sixth overall.
