Volleyball

North Callaway, Hill block out records in five-set win vs Wright City

North Callaway has been trying to build a volleyball program ever since establishing it in 2014.

On Tuesday night, two records fell in a five-set victory against Eastern Missouri Conference foe Wright City (23-25, 25-14, 22-25, 25-23 and 15-13). Head coach Andrew Klein secured the first conference victory in his tenure that started last season but also the North Callaway program snapped an 0-36 EMO losing streak that spanned to a Sept. 22, 2016, victory at Bowling Green.

Sophomore middle blocker Bailey Hill was a big reason why as she broke the school single-game blocks record with nine stuffs, which previously stood at seven by Becca Bloss. Sophomore outside hitter Natalie Shryock led the team with 12 kills followed by freshman outside hitter Rylee Horstman at eight, junior libero Riley Blevins led with 15 digs, and setters senior Ellie Pezold and sophomore Jaden Smithee combined for more than 25 assists.

North Callaway was down at several points in the match, falling behind 2-1 and trailing 18-15 in the fourth set and 13-11 in the fifth set. Klein said the team has lost some four-set and five-set matches this season so it would be easy for the girls to feel down but is glad they rose to the challenge for the monumental victory.

“We’ve been here before, and we’ve been on the wrong side of it before,” Klein said. “Our girls didn’t really love that feeling and that’s understandable. Those are the really tough ones to lose. This time, it fell our way.

“It’s important, and I’ve appreciated over the last few weeks, that our players trust one another in big moments. Try not to step on each other’s feet. We have two seniors and a whole lot of sophomores. When you trust each other down the stretch, it makes the game a lot easier. You pick each other up, and it makes us feel a lot less nervous in moments like that.”

Hill blocked a ball to tie the fourth set at 18 and stuffed another Lady Wildcat hitter a few points later for a 20-19 lead. Wright City outside hitter Jasmin Simpson cut her team’s deficit to 24-23 with an ace and put North Callaway in jeopardy of needing extra points in a do-or-die set. 

“Bailey is terrific at playing when she has confidence in herself and when the players around her give her confidence,” Klein said. “She is the ultimate move on type of a player. She makes a bad play, she moves on. That allows her to play really well for long stretches. She made a few errors tonight and I think she had a couple lifts too, but she shook those off. If she hadn’t shaken those off, I don’t think she could have had the impact that she had tonight.”

With that EMO conference monkey off North Callaway’s back, the Ladybirds (5-11-1, 1-4 EMO) are excited for their next conference matchup at Bowling Green (4-9-4, 1-2 EMO) on Thursday.

“We’re still trying to learn, but they’re super-awesome at bouncing back and being able to use criticism,” Klein said. “They just do a good job at bouncing back and not taking things personally.”

Look for the full story in the Oct. 1, 2022, edition of The Mexico Ledger or on the website on the same day.

Girls tennis

Mexico sweeps regular season finale vs Battle

Mexico closed its regular season with a win Tuesday at home.

The Lady Bulldogs played a young Battle team — who consisted of six girls in the dual at Fairgrounds Park — and won 9-0. Mexico lost only one game during the day, but otherwise, 8-0 scores were displayed across the board.

Head coach Kim Costley said Mexico needs to refocus quickly as the North Central Missouri Conference tournament will be hosted today in Marshall and individual district play will be on Saturday at North Point.

“Battle has a very young team,” Costley said. “We will go to Marshall tomorrow for the conference tournament. The conference is tighter than it’s been in awhile, so I’m anxious to see where we end up as a team.”

Estrella Lopez lost a game in the No. 2 singles match but won 8-1. She and doubles partner Jocelyn Garcia each had two victories. Other Lady Bulldogs with wins in singles included Katie Gooch, Jyllian Whitworth, Lani Blair and Messiah Simpson. The pairs of Claire Hudson and Lucy Gleeson and Alice Eggen and Daida Herrera-Garcia won varsity doubles matches after usually playing in junior varsity matches this year.

Softball

North Callaway not sure-handed in 14-4 loss at Louisiana

North Callaway doesn’t have this much trouble against Louisiana. It doesn’t have that much trouble fielding the ball as was the case Tuesday night either.

The Ladybirds lost 14-4 in six innings after not previously losing to Louisiana in an Eastern Missouri Conference game — with the most recent overall loss happening in 2010 — since the school joined the EMO conference five years ago. They committed a season-high eight errors to allow seven unearned runs between pitchers Lauren Speight and Ellie Bedsworth.

Louisiana’s offense still showed up as it outhit North Callaway 14-10, including two of the first three batters that bunted for base hits in the first inning. For North Callaway’s offense, Kymorie Myers had two RBI and a triple, Corynne Miller finished 3-for-3 with an RBI single in the fifth inning, Olivia Knoepflein went 2-for-2 and Faith Cash had a double.

The Ladybirds cut the deficit to 4-3 after the third inning but allowed the game to get away from them after an eight-run fourth inning for Louisiana (7-8, 4-4 EMO).

North Callaway (6-11, 4-3 EMO) hosts a state-ranked EMO opponent Silex (11-8, 5-2 EMO), who was ranked fourth in Class 1 in the latest state poll, on Thursday.

Van-Far falls behind early in 16-0 loss to state-ranked Silex

Van-Far ran into the second buzzsaw in three games.

The Lady Indians were shut down by a perfect performance by Bowling Green’s Megan Graver and were shut out 16-0 in five innings on Tuesday at home to another Eastern Missouri Conference foe, Class 1 No. 4 Silex. Carmen Wilburn had a first-inning and Layla Ogden had a fifth-inning double for the Lady Indians’ only hits against Karlie Ellis, who struck out nine.

Ellis had two RBI and two doubles to complement Maddy Hall’s three-RBI home run in the first inning. Hall went deep against Dalana Gay, who gave the ball to Mara Jensen in the second inning.

The early pitching change didn’t help as Silex (11-8, 5-2 EMO) had a 10-0 lead after two innings.

Van-Far (4-10, 1-7 EMO) visits Community R-6 (8-10) on Thursday.

Boys soccer

Mexico receives second district shutout, losing 5-0 at Southern Boone

It didn’t take long for Mexico needing to work uphill Tuesday.

Southern Boone’s Drew Dial set a school record for fastest goal and clocked in at 13th fastest in MSHSAA history with a score 24 seconds into Mexico’s 5-0 loss at the district foe Eagles. Southern Boone took a 3-0 lead into halftime and handed the Bulldogs their second clean sheet of the season after being shut out 2-0 at district foe Kirksville earlier this year.

After Dial’s abrupt goal, Mason Ahern scored two of the next four goals for Southern Boone (6-7-1).

Mexico (4-8) will visit crosstown opponent Missouri Military Academy (7-2-1) on Thursday.