For the first time this fall, the West Platte volleyball team has lost consecutive matches when the Blue Jays fell to St. Joseph Christian and Mid-Buchanan.
West Platte battled it out against St. Joseph Christian on Sept. 28 when the Blue Jays came up short in five sets. West Platte found itself down 0-2 after losing the first two sets by scores of 25-16 and 25-14.
The Blue Jays bounced back and won set three by a demanding 25-13 score to regain momentum in the match. West Platte forced a fifth set when it won a tough set, 25-22, but lost the match in the final set by a score of 15-8.
“We have to focus on the fundamentals and clean up our details on how we attack the ball,” West Platte head coach Connor Kellerstrass said. “When we are not hurting ourselves, we are in every match, and have a good chance to win.”
For the next match, the Blue Jays had to take on a district opponent when West Platte fell 3-1 against Mid-Buchanan on Sept. 30. After losing the first set 25-20, the Blue Jays pulled out the next set late to take a 25-22 victory to even the match 1-1.
“Towards the end of that second set, we were serving pretty well. When we do that, their big girls aren’t able to hit well because they struggle to pass the ball at times,” Kellerstrass said.
In the next set, the Blue Jays and Dragons were in a tight, back-and-forth battle where the Dragons extended their lead after being knotted at 10-10. Mid-Buchanan came out on top 25-20 to take a 2-1 advantage in the match.
The final set went down to the wire as West Platte and Mid-Buchanan had nine ties in the fourth set of the conference matchup. After being tied at 19, neither team had a 2-point lead from that point on until the contest was over.
“All week we have struggled with some unforced errors and tonight that continued. When we collectively have an off night, it is hard to come in here and win,” Kellerstrass said.
The Dragons eventually gained a 2-point advantage to win 27-25 and defeat the Blue Jays 3-1 on the day. West Platte will look to bounce back from the pair of losses when it heads to Plattsburg to take on the Tigers on Oct. 7 at 7 p.m.