East Prairie suffers tough loss to Senath-Hornersville

AST PRAIRIE, Mo. — The East Prairie volleyball team lost in straight sets to Senath-Hornersville at EPHS on Tuesday, September 12.

The Lady Lions (7-5-1) won over the Lady Eagles (2-4-0) with set scores of 25-23, 25-14 and 25-18.

“I do not think that was our best performance,” said East Prairie coach Kelle Goodding. “We are a much better team than what we stood tonight. [Senath-Hornersville] plays consistently. They maintained composure throughout the game and we struggled with some emotional ups and downs.

Senath-Hornersville's Jada Burlison (7) goes for a kill during a 3-0 win at East Prairie on Tuesday, September 12, 2023.�Dennis Marshall/Standard-Democrat

“As a result, we found ourselves playing catch-up,” she continued. “This team always puts up a fight to get back into it, but sometimes we let things get too difficult to overcome.”

East Prairie put up a tough fight in the first set before succumbing to a hard-fought defeat, and the emotional letdown carried over into the second set.

“Losing that first serve was a momentum killer,” Goodding said. “We just have to keep working on being more aggressive.”

East Prairie's Ella Dunn (2) dives for a dig�during a 3-0 loss to Senath-Hornersville on Tuesday, September 12, 2023.�Dennis Marshall/Standard-Democrat

Despite a few solid late-game surges, the Lady Eagles’ efforts fell short as they were unable to regain serious contention in the match.

“For the second game in a row, Lydia Valencia stepped up,’ Goodding said. “Olivia Hayes was on tonight, making the smart plays and the right decisions. Our blocking was better as a team tonight.”

Jada Burlison and Chloe Edmonston were the top players for Senath-Hornersville.

“We go to our middle hitters all the time and they both came through big for us,” said Senath-Hornersville coach Laura Harris. “We had been struggling with our serves, we got back into the routine of getting some hard serves. We have also been playing a tip game and we got a lot more kills tonight. We don’t have a very big team but they play the game smart and it worked out for us.”

East Prairie plays Bell City (4-6-1) at home on Thursday, September 14, while Senath-Hornersville hosts Risco (8-5) on Friday, September 15.