Prep volleyball: Sabers sweep rematch with Eagles
Sep. 24—BUSSEY — Jenny Jarr was looking forward to seeing how the Moulton-Udell volleyball team would perform against opponents that had slipped past them earlier in the season.
One of those rematches came on Thursday night just outside Bussey as the Eagles looked to turn the tables on Twin Cedars after suffering a straight-set loss just 10 days earlier.
"Twin Cedars is a really good team and I don't feel like we played our best game against them the first time," Jarr said last week after M-U's four-set win at Moravia. "I'm looking forward to the rematch and see what we can give them."
Unfortunately for the Eagles, despite the hopes of their coach, the rematch brought more of the same results on Thursday. The Sabers kept several points alive with an impressive defensive effort, recording 38 digs to frustrate M-U clinching another Bluegrass Conference sweep winning 25-14, 25-16 and 25-10.
"Compared to the match we played against them 10 days ago, I thought we played a lot better. Twin Cedars is a good team that can really hit the ball," Jarr said. "We really worked on our coverage. I thought we had a lot of good volleys with them. We just were not competing on every single play like we needed to. That was really the difference."
The Eagles were coming off a three-set loss to sixth-ranked (1A) Ankeny Christian on Tuesday, falling 25-8, 25-7 and 25-9. Katie Quick had 20 assists and nine aces while Anna Weathers and Carley Craighead combined on 17 kills for Ankeny Christian.
Rylee Dunkin also collected 20 assists setting against M-U on Thursday. Jillian French would lead the Sabers with five aces as Twin Cedars finished serving 67-73 with a dozen unreturned ace serves in the win.
"We could have done things better, but as long as our girls are out there, they're trying their best," Jarr said of the Eagles. "I can't fault the girls for their effort. I wish the outcome was different, but I can't ask anything more from our players. At the end of the day, we just need to get better and be ready to compete right from the start of the match."
Zoey Hackathorn led M-U in the match with eight kills and three aces. The Eagles finished with 21 kills as a team, finishing just three behind Twin Cedars in the match, but could only manage 10 digs against the Sabers attack. By comparison, Ali Mockenhaupt finished with 19 digs on her own for Twin Cedars.
"We've definitely been working on communication, talking about what we are seeing and what we are expecting," Twin Cedars head volleyball coach Randie Gist said. "That communication is allowing us to make the plays to put the ball on the floor. We played tough, M-U played tough as well. I was excited to see some exciting plays all the way around."
M-U (3-6, 2-2 Bluegrass) steps out of conference to host Wayne on Monday. The match will be the first of four matches in the span of four days for the Eagles.
"It's good in a way to play that many matches, but at the same time I wish we had a few practices mixed in there to work on some things," Jarr said. "We'll learn on the fly, which we're pretty good at doing."
Twin Cedars (6-10, 2-2 Bluegrass) hosts Melcher-Dallas on Monday.
