After a third-place finish at the Silver Lake tournament, one of Sabetha’s biggest challenges of the regular season and Big Seven competition laid ahead. The Jays hosted the Nemaha Central Thunder — on a night of tribute to their seniors — on Tuesday, Oct. 4, for another great rivalry match. The Thunder boasts king of the hill status in the Big Seven at 10-1 and 27-1 overall record, which is a motivating factor for the underdog Bluejays to attempt to rise above.

“We played relaxed, but that actually lead to the girls being a bit complacent with the status quo of the game,” said Head Coach Abby Stueve. “We competed quite well at the beginning of each set, but allowing Nemaha Central to go on any sort of run coupled with our struggle to string any points together, left us in the deficit that we were not overcoming.”

In the first sets of match number one, the Bluejays had few attacks at the net and only a handful of blocks. Sophomore Erin Boltz had five kills, 15 serves received and one solo block in the first match. Seniors Mary Lukert, Jessica Gruber and Halle Scoby each had kills in the first competition — three, two and two, respectively — with Lukert accounting for 10 serves received defensively. Junior Alexia Hayden once again led the team in set assists with 12. Nemaha Central kept the Jays on their heels and the Jays fell, 13-25 and 16-25, in the match.

The rubber match between these teams went in favor of the visiting Thunder, when they closed out the night with wins over the Bluejays, 25-14 and 25-15. Sabetha struggled at the net, but was able to ink some kills in the second sets of the match.

Lukert had four kills, one block and five digs, and Gruber had three kills, two solo blocks and two assisted blocks for her team. Boltz had 11 digs and 13 serves received, with Scoby logging 10 digs and 11 serves received. Hayden had 10 additional assists in the two sets and sophomore Aubrey Schmelzle led the team with 12 digs.

“These matches helped us realized what aspects of our game needs to be played more consistently in order to beat top teams like Nemaha Central,” Coach Stueve said. “There is still room for growth, which is good.”

The Lady Jays traveled to Royal Valley on Tuesday, Oct. 11. These results were not available at The Herald’s press time.