By Brennan Stebbins (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
All season long, Jasper’s volleyball team has played with the motto “One More” after coming within one point of advancing to last year’s final four.
On Saturday, the Eagles got a Class 1 quarterfinal rematch against Galena, the team that ended their season last year.
And this time it wasn’t even close––Jasper got stronger in every set and rolled to a 3-0 win to advance to the semifinals for the first time in program history.
“We’re blessed, that’s what’s going through my mind,” said head coach Daniel Osborne. “My players have worked so hard. They put in the time, the effort and they come to practice and they just do what we ask them to do. They put it together. This has been our goal since day one this year, to go to state. We missed it last year by one point and that’s our whole motto this year, one more. Give us one more chance to get to state, one more chance to do whatever and we did it. Great players, a wonderful assistant coach. Our community came out and supported us today. We’re blessed.”
Jasper, now 34-1 and winners of 26 straight matches, will face Winona (32-3-2) on November 8 Cape Girardeau in the semifinals. The Eagles have only dropped four sets all season.
They took an early lead on Saturday after a 25-16 win in the first set, and then used a big run to build a double-digit advantage in the second. Kills by senior Crystal Smith made it 22-10 at one point and the Eagles went on to win 25-12.
Jasper trailed briefly in the third set, 4-3, but took another lead on a kill by senior Emersyn Bass and then was never threatened again. Addison Atnip made it 9-6 with a kill, and it was 13-7 after a kill by junior Aspen Lehman. A kill by Smith made it 18-8 and started a quick 5-0 run that featured a kill by Bass and two aces by senior Alyssa Osborne. Smith, junior Alivea Roberts and Atnip each made crucial kills down the stretch for the final score of 25-10.
“Our hitters came out and really did a great job,” Osborne said. “Our passers had to step it up a little bit. We had some wonky passes that didn’t really get to our setter. My setter is phenomenal, she’s the best in the state and she saves us so many times. Our serving got off a little bit that first set, we missed a couple serves which is just not us. We got back in the second, got our serves in, passes in, everything just came together. We started reading their hits a whole lot better, got more blocks on them. That was a big key. We got them out of system so many times off of our serves. Our serving improved and that really got us going and got our passes going better. They just wanted it.”
CLICK HERE FOR PHOTOS OF THE MATCH
Smith led the Eagles with 17 kills, and also notched three aces. Roberts added six kills, Lehman had six kills, Osborne had four aces, Atnip had three aces and senior Shiloh Storm totaled more than 30 assists.
Last year, Jasper knocked off Liberal in the district finals and Archie in the sectional round before facing Galena. The Eagles have followed the same path this year, with a 3-0 win over Liberal and then a 3-1 win against Archie. Unlike last season, this year’s quarterfinal matchup was on Jasper’s home court, and the Eagles played in front of a raucous capacity crowd that erupted with confetti as soon as the final set ended.
“It’s a good feeling of redemption, it really is,” Osborne said.
“(The crowd) was great, we didn’t know what to expect,” he said. “We knew there were going to be a lot of people here so we practiced for a loud crowd because our gym echoes like crazy. Our community is the best, they’ve supported us from day one. The parents, grandparents, our school, everyone comes together and supports us.”
“We made history,” Osborne added. “Jasper’s never gone to the final four so what you saw today was history and we’re proud to do it.”
