The California Lady Pintos volleyball has been riding a wave of good feeling during the last few weeks.
A high point of that wave came on Saturday, Oct. 1 when the Lady Pintos won the Warrensburg Tournament. California then went on to beat Cole Camp and Versailles in straight sets.
Last Thursday, the Lady Pintos took on one of the toughest opponents on their schedule, the Helias Lady Crusaders. California got off to a very slow start in the first set, allowing Helias to play its style of volleyball. The Lady Pintos put up a hard fight from that point on, but Helias came away with a 3-1 (11-25, 22-25, 25-22, 23-25) victory against California.
Just like in the match against Blair Oaks on Sept. 15, several of California's players had played club volleyball either with or against several of Helias' players during the summer. California coach Julie Bailey said there was a bit of an advantage with those relationships between the players, as the Lady Pintos had a clearer picture of how Helias would play and what their strengths were.
"We knew that when we played against Chapel (Dobbs) last year, we knew that she was capable of hitting and setting the ball. We also knew that Josie (Morasch) was a good hitter and she could definitely put the ball in play," Bailey said "On their back row, their libero (Izzy Herbold) is something else. She did an outstanding job for them and it helped them when Abby (Trachsel) did an outstanding job for us."
In the opening set, California found themselves in the unfamiliar position of having to play from behind. Helias jumped on California from the opening serve and the Lady Pintos didn't have an answer for the Lady Crusaders' relentless attack. Bailey used both of her timeouts, but it did little to help, and Helias took the a 1-0 lead in the match with a resounding 25-11 win.
"We didn't underestimate them going in, I think it was more nerves. I think those nerves came from knowing who our opponent was. We don't underestimate a team as good as Helias Catholic. We stepped out a little nervous because we knew how good they were," Bailey said. "That led to us committing a lot of unforced errors right off the bat and we dug a hole. About halfway through, we started cleaning up some stuff and we fought our way back. It was just to big of a hole for us to overcome."
History repeated itself in the opening moments of the second set, when Helias jumped out to a 10-3 lead and Bailey had to use another early timeout. However, it was in that timeout huddle when the Lady Pintos started to be more aggressive on defense and led to them getting right back in the match. Unfortunately, the comeback came up short and Helias took the second set 25-22 and now led the match 2-0. Bailey said California was slow to start the match because they had not played many teams that could return the ball on defense the way Helias does. That led to California having to take longer to adjust on defense.
"The girls came out to start the second set and our passing improved a whole lot and when our passing improves, we're able to use our hitters, and I think that was a difference for us the rest of the night," Bailey said. " The girls were able to get the ball to our setters, our setters got the ball to our hitters, and our hitters were able to attack."
The third set was evenly matched from the beginning, but Helias still kept the lead for most of the match. California was trailing 19-15 in the set when senior hitter Lauren Friedrich took over with four straight kills. When Friedrich putting the Lady Pintos ahead, junior hitter Isabella Kincaid made the final kill to win the set 25-22 California and take the match to a fourth set. The fourth set followed the same pattern with both teams going back and forth with California taking a late 21-18 lead. During this stretch, Dobbs, Helias' most powerful hitter and blocker, had been playing on the back row or sitting on the bench. Dobbs was brought back into the front line and carried Helias to a 7-2 run to finish the set and give Helias the set win 25-23 and the match win 3-1.
Although California lost the match, two season-highs were set in the game. Friedrich had a season-high 22 kills and Trachsel had a season-high 23 digs. Bailey said that the performances by both Friedrich and Trachsel were some of the best individual performances she's seen all season.
"I can't say enough about the plays that Abby Trachsel made tonight on the back row. She did outstanding and she was everywhere. I don't know if I've seen her play that well in a long time. We also knew going in that if we could get Lauren the ball, it was going to be adventitious to us and it definitely was. We just weren't able to keep her on the court long enough, but when she was on the court, she was outstanding," Bailey said. "Emma Whitson did a very nice job in the fourth set when she picked apart their serve-receivers when she was serving to them. Her sets and assists was great as well. I think they started playing better after Emma (Whitson) gave them some trouble. Chapel (Dobbs) came back in and she got a couple of good swings and hits off of us. We we're battling hard. They just came out on top," Bailey said. "You never want to lose, but this was a good time for us to play a team like this. We really need to play more teams like Helias to challenge us. It gets us ready for districts when we get there."
California has already secured the No. 2 seed and a bye in upcoming Class 3 District 8 Tournament in two weeks. The second loss of the season for the Lady Pintos came at a time where they are looking to build momentum going in the postseason.
California will play the School of the Osage Lady Indians on Thursday night at Lake Ozark.
Junior Isabella Kincaid made the kill to extend Thursday's match to a fourth set. Kincaid had 14 kills against Helias Catholic. (Democrat Photo/Evan Holmes)
Junior Penelope Cotten makes a block for the Lady Pintos against the Lady Crusaders.(Democrat Photo/Evan Holmes)
Senior front-line hitter Lauren Friedrich made a season-high 22 kills against Helias Catholic on Thursday night. (Democrat Photo/Evan Holmes)
Senior Emma Whitson had seven kills, ten assists, two aces, and a block vs. Helias Catholic on Thursday night. (Democrat Photo/Evan Holmes)
Senior Emma Braby makes a dig for the Lady Pintos in the fourth set against the Lady Crusaders. Braby had nine digs on Thursday night. (Democrat Photo/Evan Holmes)
Senior libero Abby Trachsel had a Lady Pintos season-high 23 digs against the Lady Crusaders. (Democrat Photo/Evan Holmes)