Leopold beats rival Bell City in volleyball

BELL CITY, Mo. -- Three of the first four points the Bell City volleyball team scored against rival Leopold on Friday night were the result of the ball being hit out of bounds by a Wildcats player.

That only happened four more times over the course of the first two games as Leopold raced out to a 2-0 advantage on its way to a 25-18, 25-19, 23-25, 25-14 victory.

"The hitters did a good job controlling the ball, placing the ball and being aggressive," Leopold coach Sandy Davis said. "They did well. I'm proud of them."

Leopold setter Lauren Seiler had plenty of offensive weapons to choose from against the Cubs and she used them all on her way to piling up 43 assists.

"She played very smart tonight," Davis said. "She put the ball where it needed to be and she moved the ball well. When you've got three hitters up there and when we use them as much as we have, the other blockers are just kind of in La La Land. They really don't know where to go."

Kirsten Thele, who finished with 23 kills, was the weapon Seiler chose most often in the first two sets.

"She hits the ball down when we need her to," Seiler said. "I mean, if somebody's on, you want to keep setting them the ball. You don't want to set to somebody who's not on."

With the Bell City leading 14-12 in game one, a kill by Thele returned the serve to Leopold. Elizabeth Eftink then served back-to-back aces during a decisive seven-point run by the Wildcats, four of which came on kills by Thele.

The same combination proved successful in game two. Leopold grabbed an early 9-3 lead behind four service points from Eftink and four kills from Thele and never trailed on its way to a 2-0 lead in the best-of-five match.

Bell City coach Erin Hoffman took some drastic measures to try to make her team better earlier in the week.

"The biggest thing right now is Tuesday I completely switched my entire lineup and everybody is in a different positions, so we're still trying to work it back together," she said. "I have a new setter, I have a new libero, I have a new middle. I changed everything."

Given all of the changes, Hoffman was satisfied with her team's play.

"I don't think we embarrassed ourselves," she said. "I think we played well for that. That's the biggest thing, but I'm not by any means making any excuses because Leopold's very good."

One constant in the Bell City lineup will be All-State sophomore Jasmine Johnson. When the Cubs consistently were able to get the ball to her in the third game, Johnson took over and led Bell City to victory in the game.

She finished with 28 kills in the match, but, according to Hoffman, subpar passing by Bell City kept Johnson from getting the ball as often as she would like.

"When you're trying to run a quick offense with somebody, that's hard to do without a good pass," she said. "Our passing was a little off in the first couple games. My setter that I just started setting, she hasn't set in two years."

Hoffman had no regrets or second thoughts about the changes after the game, though.

"The first 17 games of the season I didn't feel like we had gotten any better and I didn't feel like we had any room for growth," she said. "But with this new thing, I've got a freshman at libero, I've got a sophomore in setter and I think we've got the ability to just get better by the second, so that's why I had to do it."

While Johnson was left to do most of the work for the Bell City offense, Thele found plenty of help as the match went on, particularly from teammate Abby Landewee.

Landewee had three kills during an early six-point run for Leopold in the fourth game and put an exclamation point on the Wildcats' win with a hard-to-come-by block of Johnson to move her team to within one point of its eventual victory. Landewee had 19 kills and five blocks in the match.

"She's a very good player," said Landewee of Johnson. "She moves the ball really well and she has a lot of power. It's always fun to play against people like that."

But it's admittedly more fun when you win.

"It's a good feeling," Landewee said. "I think we played great as a team and I think we moved the ball well and I was happy with the way everyone played together."

Next up for Leopold, which is ranked No. 2 in Class 1, is a home match with Scott City on Monday night. The Rams currently are ranked No. 2 in Class 2.