The McDonald County High School Lady Mustang volleyball team opened play in the Big 8 Conference Monday night with a dominating 25-20, 25-16 win over the Seneca Indians. The match was the first conference game for McDonald County since it was admitted to the Big 8 this year after being an independent since 2007.
"I am thrilled to win our conference opener," said coach Kacha Schmidt. "I thought it was a good effort. I was proud of the girls. We served more aggressive than we have been and that kept them off the net. They didn't have many opportunities to attack. "
Seneca took an early 5-2 lead in the first game and held the lead until McDonald County scored three straight points for an 11-10 lead. The teams were tied at 12-12 before McDonald County had a pair of three point runs to take control of the game on the way to a 25-20 win.
In the second game, the teams were tied 7-7 when Brittney Stone reeled off five consecutive service points to give McDonald County to a 12-7 lead. McDonald County stretched the margin to 21-11 before winning 25-16.
Preslea Reece had 16 kills and Destiny Arnall added 14 assists to lead McDonald County. Stone finished with nine service points, including five aces, and Lauren Goff added 13 digs.
McDonald County recorded a 25-16, 25-14 win the junior varsity match.
McDonald County is now 4-3-1 heading into tonight's match when it hosts Carl Junction. Matches begin at 5 p.m.
Branson Tournament
McDonald County went 1-2-1 Saturday at the Branson Tournament, settling for eighth place in the 16-team tourney.
"Overall, we improved in a couple areas," Kuhn said. "As a team, our serve receive was much better from the passing standpoint. However, we should have been more aggressive at the net with those passes. We started the day pretty crisp and beat Clinton in two. We dug ourselves a hole against Branson getting down 20-10. We fought back, but wasn't able to win either game. We had our worst match against Diamond. We committed multiple errors at the net."
McDonald County opened the day with a 25-14, 25-14 win over Clinton. Bailey Rickett had seven service points and Reece had six kills to lead McDonald County.
Branson then handed McDonald County a 25-23, 25-15 loss. Rickett had five service points while Reece added 11 kills. Goff had seven digs, Stone five and Arnall added 10 assists.
McDonald County split with Diamond in its final pool match of the day. Diamond won the first game 25-21 before McDonald County rebounded for a 25-16 win in the second.
Stone had eight service points, five kills and four digs while Reece had six service points, four kills and three digs to lead McDonald County. Alex Gross added 14 digs and two kills.
After pool play, McDonald County received the number eight seed in the Gold Bracket where they faced top-seeded Nixa. Nixa broke from a 19-19 tie in the first game to pull away for a 25-21, 25-19 win. Reece had five kills, Gross four and Rickett and Stone three to lead McDonald County at the net. Stone added five service points, while Arnall had four and 10 assists.
Webb City
The Lady Mustangs jumped out to an 8-1 lead in the first game and cruised to a 25-18, 25-19 win over Webb City Sept. 2 at MCHS. Webb City closed the deficit to 16-14 in the opener before Rickett served for six consecutive points to help McDonald County pull away for the win.
In the second game, McDonald County broke from a 3-3 tie to a 12-6 lead. The Lady Mustangs biggest lead of the game came at 21-10 before Webb City rallied late to close the final margin to 25-19.
Rickett had 15 service points, seven aces, while Reece had eight kills, seven digs and two blocks to lead McDonald County. Gross and Stone each had two kills and Gross added nine digs and six assists.
Webb City claimed a 25-16, 25-17 win in the junior varsity match.
Sports on 09/11/2014