SportsOctober 1, 2024

Jackson Indians Secure Third Straight SEMO Volleyball Title; Eye Tournament Win Next. Despite fatigue from a tough weekend, Jackson's volleyball team triumphed over Saxony Lutheran, clinching the SEMO Conference regular season championship.

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The Jackson Indians volleyball team defeated the Saxony Lutheran Crusaders in straight sets on Monday at Saxony Lutheran High School.

Saxony made things tough on Jackson in the first two sets with the Indians surviving close games by scores of 25-19 and 25-21. Jackson ran away with the third set 25-13. Indians head coach David Mirly said although his team may have been tired from a weekend tournament in St. Louis, they never showed it.

“It shows how mentally tough we are. We have a saying in our program that says ‘great players never get tired’ which I know they do, but they will never admit it or act like they're tired,” Mirly said. “So I'm sure we were a little bit tired tonight, but there's no way they would let that slow them down tonight.”

With the win over the Crusaders, Jackson finished undefeated in the conference and claimed a third consecutive SEMO Conference regular season championship. Mirly said he is proud of his team and happy for his seniors.

“It means so much to the seniors because this is their last year, we take a lot of pride in winning the conference and we've won it for so many years in a row this senior class didn't want to be the team that got the streak broken,” Mirly said. “I'm so happy for all seven of my seniors. They all work so hard in practice. They all care about their teammates so much, and for them to get this victory tonight, I'm just so happy for them.”

Jackson has won the conference tournament championship the last five seasons and is looking to make it six when the tournament kicks off on Thursday. Mirly said winning the regular season championship is good but you cannot take anyone in the conference lightly come tournament time.

“It’s going to give us confidence. But the way Saxony played us tonight, they're going to come in with a lot of confidence too. Saxony did not quit at all tonight and they just kept fighting. So there's another team that's going to be hyped up and ready to go,” Mirly said. “Cape, Dexter and Notre Dame are tough too. This is the best and the strongest I've seen our conference since I've been here so we're excited about the tournament and the challenges it presents.”

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The SEMO conference tournament is Thursday at the Cape Girardeau Sportsplex beginning at 3 p.m.

Around Southeast Missouri

Cross Country: Dexter’s Cameron Bell (16:05.00) finished fifth in the boys’ gold race at the Gans Creek Classic in Columbia. Jackson’s Kenyan Kelpe (16:25.40) finished 20th in the same race. Cape Central’s Jason Zhang (17:54.00) finished 10th in the boys’ white race. In the meet’s girls’ gold race, Jackson’s Annika Barks (19:10.80) finished ninth and Emma Niedbalski (19:32.00) finished 14th to lead the Indians to a 6th place finish.

Swimming: Phin Theall won the 50-yard (20.81) and 100-yard (45.39) freestyle in the COMO Invitational. Notre Dame’s relay team finished sixth in the 200y medley relay.

Volleyball: Scott City fell to Leopold in four sets (23-25, 25-21, 22-25, 21-25) behind Lilyan Landis’ 21 kills, Ramsey Spinks 41 assists and Layla Estes’ 33 digs and 6 aces. The Rams drop to 7-5-2 and will host Charleston on Tuesday.

Tennis: Saxony Lutheran defeated Potosi 6-3 to improve to 10-2, while Jackson fell to Eureka 6-3 to drop to 13-3-1 on the season.

Softball: Chaffee fell to Neelyville 3-2, dropping to 17-4 on the season. The Red Devils were led by Jocelyn Hanlon, who went 2-for-3 at the plate.

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