Jackson volleyball rolls on senior night

The Jackson Indians (7-3) volleyball team made quick work of their rivals, the Cape Central Tigers (5-6-1), winning in straight sets on Tuesday at the Jackson High School Event Center. It was also senior night for the Indians as they prepared to say goodbye to nine seniors at the end of the season.

Set number one was the closest of the match as the Indians squeaked out a six-point victory, 25-19. Jackson head coach Dave Mirly said despite playing their last six games without a practice they have still found a way to improve on several areas of the game.

“We played with a lot of intensity, at the beginning of the game we were focused, but we still need to work on passing and serving,” Mirly said. “But all other aspects of our game have been much improved. We did not have as many hitting errors tonight as we've had in the past, so it's good to see us improving on that.”

Set two and three were all Indians as they put their foot on the gas and overwhelmed the Tigers, 25-12 in both sets. The Jackson seniors showed up significantly on their senior night with Ella Domian and Wichita State commit Nadia Wasilewski each having 10 kills. SEMO commit Holland Guilliams and Charlee Koepp had nine and 10 digs, respectively. Payton Gannon added 10 assists.

Mirly said these nine seniors have meant so much to the program and they have worked as a team well since middle school.

“They have been so valuable since they were in seventh grade, they were just so eager to learn and they loved volleyball so much. They had a great skill set coming in and they've only gotten so much better. It's such a special group because all of them are in it for the team's benefit not for their own benefit and with so many talented players out there it would be easy for them to become selfish because they want the ball,” Mirly said. “All they care about is the scoreboard and that's a great thing. That's very rare these days for people to buy into a team concept, and I'm so proud of them and it's such an honor to get to coach them.”

Junior Katy St. John showed up with 10 kills of her own while sophomore Ava Wessel also made her presence felt with 10 assists.

Jackson will travel to Notre Dame Regional High School to take on the Bulldogs on Thursday at 6:30 p.m. while Cape Central will travel to Scott City to battle the Rams on Monday at 6:30 p.m.