Volleyball Finishes Second In Districts

Lady Eagles Volleyball (10-19) lost against St. Clair (23-9-1) in the Class 3 District 9 Championship on Tuesday, Oct. 24. St. Clair beat them in all three sets with scores of 25-19, 25-11 and 25-23.

The Eagle-Bulldog rivalry extended to the matchup held in Owensville, with St. Clair fans sporting “BEAT SULLIVAN” t-shirts and Sullivan fans cheering in full force.

The two teams had last clashed on Oct. 12 for their final regular season game and fell short to them in four sets. The No. 2 seeded Sullivan team was left devastated after that match and knew that it was more than likely they would face St. Clair again.

The Lady Eagles were coming off a district championship win the previous year against Salem and hoped to replicate the same success two years in a row. But, they ultimately fell short to a tough Bulldog group.

Head coach Sarah Rocleau stated, “I felt like in the district championship, we were just a little bit outmatched. I think St. Clair played an excellent game and we did not quite have the weapons to kind of match what they had that night.” She continued, saying, “I was proud that we didn’t give up and we probably should have taken that third set. We were up by a decent amount, but St. Clair was just the better team.”

Ava Blankenship delivered a team-high of 25 attacks and 10 kills, along with a block to give Sullivan a chance to win.

Abby Record led her team with 3 aces and 5 points, as well as 19 attacks, 2 kills and a block.

Stevi Saling had a team-high of 2 blocks, along with 17 attacks and 4 kills.

Raegan Johnson collected 18 attacks, 4 points, 3 kills and 2 assists.

Emily Clonts posted 16 attacks, 4 kills, 4 points, 2 aces and an assist.

Delaney George tallied up 3 points, 2 points and 2 assists.

Karlee Head made 6 attacks, 5 assists, a kill and a block.

Allie Brune executed 2 points and an ace.

Ava Todd led her team with 13 assists.

In the 1st set, Sullivan lost 25-19 with some miscommunication errors and struggled to break through the Lady Bulldogs.

Sullivan began the 2nd set with Blankenship’s kill tying the score at 4-4. However, the Lady Eagles started to struggle on their hits allowing St. Clair to win 25-11 in Sullivan’s toughest defeat of the night.

In the 3rd set, Blankenship’s kills and the great chemistry within the Lady Eagles helped them establish a 10-4 lead, but St. Clair closed the gap to 15-12. The Lady Bulldogs managed to tie the game at 23-23 due to some mistakes made by Sullivan and served up two points to secure the championship with a 25-23 win.