The Sabetha Lady Jays are whittling away at their regular season matchups as they get closer to the end of the regular season, with just five invitational meets to attend before Sub-State action. The Lady Jays traveled to the Silver Lake Invitational meet on Saturday, Oct. 1, in an effort to boost the tallies in the win column and show schools in northeast Kansas that they are there to pit themselves among the best teams around.

“Going 3-2 on the day at Silver Lake was a great success for the day,” said Head Coach Abby Stueve. “We came off of a really weak night of play on Tuesday of last week and were starting the day with the same team we lost to, Jeff West. The team really showed up and performed!”

The Lady Jays rebounded from their disappointing loss to the Lady Tigers in their previous meeting in a Big Seven quad, and tamed the Tigers in straight sets. St. Marys challenged the Jays in the second round, but Sabetha came out on top in consecutive sets. The Bluejays had a bye round before they met Silver Lake in the final match of pool play, and the Eagles handed their guests losses in straight sets. Sabetha faced Rossville in the semifinals and lost, then defeated Royal Valley in the consolation to take third place.

Jefferson West

Senior Mary Lukert led the charge for Sabetha in this first match with a perfect serving percentage, tallying 14 kills on offense and 14 defensive digs. Sophomore Erin Boltz had five kills, one solo block and 13 digs.

Senior teammates Halle Scoby and Jessica Gruber supported their team in each aspect of the game with Scoby being perfect with her service and marking two kills, and Gruber had five kills. Junior Alexia Hayden had 23 set assists and sophomore Aubrey Schmelzle had 13 defensive digs. The Lady Jays picked up the win 25-20 in the first set and 25-18 in the second.

St. Marys

This match was back and forth and it would be a white knuckle ride to the finish, with the Lady Jays taking consecutive wins, 25-23 and 26-23, against the Bears. Sabetha had a balanced attack with notable statistics with Hayden having 19 assists, Lukert with eight kills, Boltz had six kills and 13 defensive digs, and Gruber had six kills and four blocks. The Bluejays started the day 4-0 through the first two rounds.

Silver Lake

The Lady Jays might have lost some of their mojo after a bye round, but they squared off with a formidable opponent in the host Eagles.

Sabetha did not have as many stops at the net and the kills dropped off to just five by Boltz and three by Lukert. Silver Lake took wins in straight sets, 9-25 and 17-25, which dropped Sabetha to second place in their pool and seed them against the 6-0 Rossville Lady Bulldogs.

Rossville

The Bulldogs handed Sabetha a loss in the semi-final game to bump them out of contention for the championship. Lukert and Schmelzle led their team in kills for the match, eight and five, respectively, and Boltz had one kill and 16 digs. Hayden tallied another 22 set assists in the match.

Royal Valley

The Bluejays finished the day with a win over the Lady Panthers in the consolation match to capture third place for the day. Lukert, Gruber and Boltz dominated at the net in the final match and the trio combined 29 kills in the win. Scoby had two service aces, two kills and six digs, while Hayden had 32 assists and Schmelzle had 13 digs in the victory.

“We were forced to make adjustments to our game plan defense multiple times during the day and were able to see the benefit of knowing two systems,” Coach Stueve said. “Although we know there will be no perfect game, we have to eliminate unforced errors and limit an opposing team’s run. By the end of the day, we had another Big Seven match up with Royal Valley. We were able to show composure and grit and win in three to capture the third place finish. Overall, the athletes were happy with their hardware and are hungry for more!”

The Lady Jays hosted Nemaha Central on Tuesday, Oct. 4, for Senior Night, and then travel to Centralia on Thursday, Oct. 6, in another contest to help prepare them for their ultimate goal of Sub-State and the potential for a State berth.