Bell City's Spears shines in her final volleyball match

POPLAR BLUFF — Friday night was possibly the last time Bell City senior Rachel Spears would be on the volleyball court in a competitive atmosphere.

To listen to her, you would think she was outclassed by her fellow players in the B.A. Sports All-Star Extravaganza and ready to get it over with.

"It's hard to play with a bunch of different people you've never played with," Spears said. "You just do your best and once you see what everybody's got, you just adjust. There's obviously a lot more girls who are a lot better than me, and I had a lot more fun cheering them on."

Spears did more than just cheer on her teammates. The three-time all-state honoree did just enough of everything to be a key player in her team's three-game sweep.

Spears had a team-high nine kills and five blocks along with two aces in AgXplore's 31-29, 30-25, 31-29 win against the Noranda team.

She rarely left the floor in the first two games, and dominated the second game with five kills, a block and an ace to propel her team into a 12-point lead.

"It didn't seem like that," Spears said. "I was just having a good time. Our team was so fun. During the season, you're like, 'I'm going to beat you,' and to play with them, they are so funny."

The AgXplore team — which also included Jenny Lathum of Bell City, Liz Martin of Perryville, Ashlea Soemo of Jackson, Katie Scholl of Central and Brittany Licare of Leopold — looked outclassed early as the big hitting of Cassy Woolverton, Laura Watson and Bell City's Jessica Abner gave Noranda a 23-17 lead shortly after an 8-1 spree had made the score 19-11.

Noranda showed off its big hitting in the spiking contest, with Gideon's Woolverton (42 mph) finishing second to Twin Rivers' Briana Johnson, who hit 47 mph and launched five of six spikes at 40 mph or better.

Spears, who topped out at 29 mph, said her team was making guesses on which of the other team's players would win the spiking.

But Lathum served up a 10-point run in the first game that turned the match for AgXplore.

"Jenny was the jump-serve ace, and I was like, 'Go Jenny,'" Spears said. "I wasn't really looking at the score and someone said, 'Hey, we're up.'"

Said Lathum: "At the beginning of the year, I didn't jump serve that much, but at the end of the year, I started doing it more. I'm going to have to do it in college, so I figured I'd better do it tonight. I thought I would probably suck, but it wasn't too bad."

After AgXplore took a 27-23 lead in the games played to 30 — "I didn't know until we had 25 and they didn't stop the game," Spears said — it held on for the win. Scholl had a kill and the Murray State-bound Woolverton, who finished with nine kills and seven blocks, hit out on a kill attempt, ending the game.

AgXplore sprinted to a 19-7 lead in the second game with Spears coming up with six points in a 10-2 run.

After Noranda closed within 27-25, Martin had two kills and Soemo served up an unreturnable ball to close out the game.

Following a lengthy break for the skills contest — in which Martin and AgXplore teammate Kaylee Blue of Twin Rivers showed their skills in controlled passing — AgXplore rallied from a 22-18 deficit to end the match. Spears had a kill off a short set and Soemo smashed another serve that Noranda could not handle.

"That third game, I was like, 'Come on guys, I'm hungry,'" Spears said.

Abner, who played on the Noranda team coached by Bell City's Erin Hoffman, Leopold's Sandy Davis and Notre Dame's Tara Stroup, contributed five kills and an ace.

Abner and Lathum will be teammates again at Shawnee Community College in Illinois next year. Spears, who teamed with that duo for final four appearances in 2005 and 2006, will study at Missouri State next year, but does not plan to play volleyball.

"It makes you sad to think this is the last time I'll play with Rachel," Lathum said. "She's one of my best friends and I'm going to hate not playing with her anymore."