The California Lady Pintos concluded its season last Tuesday, falling to Helias in the Class 3, District 12 semifinals, ending the season with a 19-11-4 record and a third place finish in the Tri-County Conference.
Despite having 11 losses, seven of those came against teams that won their district tournament. Santa Fe, Fatima, Cole Camp, Helias, Boonville, Smith-Cotton and Savannah were all losses for California, but won its respective district.
"When I looked at the results of who had won their district and thought about our losses, although I'm never happy with losses, a lot of them came early on in the season," California head coach Julie Bailey said. "It made me even happier to realize we had a tough schedule and the girls played really well and came on really strong at the end of the season."
The Lady Pintos' schedule was really front-loaded with California facing so many quality teams to begin the season. California began the season 2-4 with losses to Boonville, Eldon, Cole Camp and Blair Oaks, and Bailey says there were some positives and negatives to having such a tough stretch in the early portion of the season.
Seniors Adrienne Strickfaden battled a back injury to start the season, and Ashtyn Goans was coming off knee surgery, and Bailey says if those two were completely healthy, California could have won a couple of those early season tests.
" ... we'd probably been able to win some games that we didn't win," she said. "I'm sure all those games helped us get ready, especially with probably the best game we played which was Smith-Cotton. Although it ended up a loss, they're a 4A school and they only lost two games. I'm sure all of those games at the beginning of the season helped prepare us for those, it prepares you for districts."
It's tough for any team to advance in a district with power-house Helias and a tough team in Blair Oaks leading it, and despite the major hurdles, Bailey is still proud of her team. Especially with the second place finish at the Versailles Tournament.
"I knew it would have been very difficult to beat Helias, but I would have liked to play them a lot better than we did," Bailey said. "I'm happy that we got second in the Versailles tournament. We played that whole day really well. We didn't play as well against Blair Oaks in the championship game as we could of."
California had two seniors on the squad, the two middles in Goans and Strickfaden. Bailey was quick to complement Goans on her ability to come back after her knee injury and be a force in the middle throughout the season, and at the start of the season Bailey said Strickfaden wanted to focus on her blocking. That's an area Strickfaden excelled in throughout the 2015 campaign.
"Adrienne, personally, did improve in her blocking," Bailey said. "She had three or four big blocks against Helias that got us points. That was a goal of hers, not only ours as a team. Ashtyn got so much stronger at the end of the year from the beginning of the year. I think she felt more confident with her game.
"They stepped up tremendously and were positive with the girls," Bailey said. "Just having them in the middle, that's going to be hard shoes to fill next year. Not only losing two middles, but losing two senior leaders."
Looking to the future of Lady Pintos volleyball, the junior varsity A and B teams both played well throughout their seasons. The JVA team finished 22-5-1 and JVB end its season with a 7-3 record. Bailey will look to young players like Caitlin Halsey, Taylor Geiser, Brooke Lage and Addison Embry to make a big step moving forward.
"We have a lot of sophomores," she said. "Obviously we're going to need middles. We have Cameron Meyer that we can move to middle, that's not her optimal place, but if we have to, we can do that."
Replacing the two middles will be difficult, but players like Gracie George and Chloe Schenewerk really caught Bailey's eye with their improvement. George was a freshman playing a lot of varsity action, and sophomore Schenewerk was a converted setter to a front row hitter.
"I didn't just play (George) on varsity, I threw her in the fire and she was starting," Bailey said. "Chloe improved tremendously. She's used to being a setter and I didn't use her as a setter because I had two junior setters, but I used her as a front row hitter. She's not necessarily a big girl, but she has a wicked left handed swing. A lot of blocks can't really read that."
California will return nine juniors next season, led my libero Kayla Allison, setter Emma Bailey and outside hitter Cameron Meyer, and while key pieces will be missed, the future is bright for the Lady Pintos. With improvement in blocking an emphasis during the offseason and Strickfaden graduating, blocking will again be something Bailey needs to see improvement before the 2016 season begins.
"Of course, Kayla Allison," Bailey said when asked about her team's strength. "Just an outstanding libero. If we needed somebody to get the ball, we knew she was going to do it. Cameron Meyer was just a power on the outside. She was the one that would say if we were down and needed something, she was telling her setters, "I want it, get me the ball' and she would put it away for us. That was a strength.
"Blocking I think is still our weakest area. Last year, our serving percentage was in the 90 percent, I don't think it was this year. The team probably wasn't as consistent. I think we probably had more power, but not as consistent in serving. I would like to see some improvement in our serving and our blocking."
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Statiscal leaders:
Kills
Cameron Meyer ... 146
Adrienne Strickfaden ... 135
Ashtyn Goans ... 96
Setting/assists
Emma Bailey ... 225
Monica Whitson ... 162
Digs
Kayla Allison ... 280
Cameron Meyer ... 150
Emma Bailey ... 136
Blocks
Adrienne Strickfaden ... 29
Cameron Meyer ... 6
Aces
Emma Bailey ... 36
Chole Schenewerk ... 25
Kayla Allison ... 23
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Post-season honors:
All-District
Kayla Allison - first team
Cameron Meyer - second team
All-Conference
Kayla Allison - first team
Cameron Meyer - first team
Adrienne Strickfaden - second team
Emma Bailey - honorable mention
All-Region
Cameron Meyer - second team
Kayla Allison - honorable mention