Sabetha hit the road on Tuesday, Oct. 13, to take on Big East competitors, the Nemaha Central Thunder and the Perry-Lecompton Kaws in their final regular-season matches. The Sabetha Lady Jays kicked off their night with a match against the Thunder and finished the night with a match against the Kaws.

Nemaha Central

As the first set opened, the Thunder took an early lead of 8-5. Nemaha Central eventually led, 15-12, as the Lady Jays refused to give up. Unfortunately, Nemaha Central took firm control of the set over the last 10 points, winning the first set 25-17.

As the second set started, Sabetha came out quickly, and took an early lead as they looked to force the match to a third set. The Lady Jays held the lead for a lengthy part of the set, but as the set neared its close, the Thunder stormed back and shrank the lead down, which set up a tense finish to the set. Despite the Lady Jays’ best efforts, Nemaha Central was able to pull out the victory by a second set score of 25-23.

Key players were seniors Macey Drahota and Sidney Schubarth. Drahota finished with six kills, while Schubarth finished with seven kills of her own.

Perry-Lecompton

Coming off of the loss to Nemaha Central, the Lady Jays looked to split their night with a win over the Perry-Lecompton Kaws. Sabetha started out perfectly if they wanted to get a win on the night, as senior Sophia Haverkamp started out the match with an ace. However, the strong start was short-lived as the Kaws took a 9-5 lead over the Lady Jays. As the first set reached its end, Sabetha found themselves back in the match as they had reduced the deficit to 17-18.

Eventually, the two teams found themselves knotted up at 24-24, meaning there would need to be a 26th point in order to take the set. It proved that a team needed 27 points, as the Kaws were able to pull away, taking the first set by an extremely narrow, 27-25 score.

After a riveting first set, the Lady Jays looked to bounce back in the second set to preserve the match. Sabetha opened the second set with back-to-back points, but eventually found themselves even with Perry-Lecompton by a score of 7-7. The Kaws caught fire soon after, scoring four of the next five points to make the score 12-8 in favor of Perry-Lecompton.

As the match seemed lost, the Lady Jays attempted to fight their way back from a 20-10 deficit, scoring the next three points, but the Kaws quickly responded with two of their own. Sabetha still fought back to make it 17-22, but eventually fell to the Kaws, as the final score was 25-17.

Players that led the Lady Jays were Drahota and junior Haidyn Jackman. Drahota finished with eight kills and a block, while Jackman ended the match with seven digs along with a kill.

The Lady Jays’ next matches were at Regional competition, which took place on Monday, Oct. 19, at Maranatha Christian Academy in Shawnee. These results were not available at The Herald’s press time.