Scott City's volleyball season ends with Class 2 sectional loss

Amelia Held and her St. Pius teammates rode into Scott City and did something no other team managed to do this season.

They knocked off the Scott City Rams.

And they did it in dramatic fashion.

The Lancers beat the Rams 23-25, 25-18, 25-22 in a wild Class 2 sectional volleyball match.

"We're ecstatic," St. Pius coach Karrie Hermann said. "We're absolutely ecstatic. I think myself, along with some of our fans, about had a heart attack."

LAURA SIMON lsimon@ semissourian.com (Scott City players Katie Hogan, left, and Jessica Boswell react after a season-ending, three-game loss to St. Pius in the Class 2 sectionals Saturday in Scott City.)

St. Pius stayed loose and relaxed the entire match. The Lancers handled everything the Rams threw at them.

"Those are the games that get the heart racing and the emotions up and down," Scott City coach Erin Hoffman said. "Those are the games that you live for, and the other team just happened to come out on top."

Held was impressive throughout, constantly making plays and finding gaps in the Rams defense.

"Individually, I definitely did have some good plays," Held said. "But it was those mistakes that got me through it because otherwise I wouldn't have learned from anything. It definitely helped and my teammates kept me up. I couldn't have done it without my team. We played amazing together."

The first game was an instant classic that featured a roller-coaster finish.

Scott City's Katie Hogan blocks St. Pius' Kylie Govreau during Game 1 on Saturday.

St. Pius led 9-6 before the Rams erased it with four consecutive points. Scott City then jumped out to a 17-14 advantage before the Lancers rattled off four consecutive points.

St. Pius appeared to be heading to a Game 1 victory when it went up 22-19, but the Rams kept fighting.

Scott City used a tip, a kill and an ace to tie the game and later earned a 25-23 win.

"That's kind of what you expect," Hoffman said. "Just back and forth. It was exciting. We didn't expect St. Pius to lay down. They're a very good team. We expected that back and forth the whole time."

The Lancers refused to fold after blowing the late lead.

Scott City's Sydney Short sets the ball during Game 3 of their Class 2 sectional against St. Pius on Saturday at Scott City.

"Scott City, we had to respect them," Held said. "They're a great team. Their middle is just huge for them. Coming back after that, we kind of felt down, like we had the lead. We felt like we should have won it. You can tell on some of our girls' faces that we were in kind of like shock that we lost that game. When we bounced back after that in the second game, I knew we were going to go from there."

Added Hermann: "It's just something we've been working on all season. We kind of have a young team, but it's about keeping your composure and not ever letting those big rallies and bad games in. Yeah we lost a lead, but we were attacking. We were playing well. And Scott City is a phenomenal team. They're not going to give you anything. Even though we lost that game, they didn't come out of that game feeling bad about it. We talked about executing. A few minor tweaks and they ran with it."

The Lancers outlasted the Rams in Game 2.

The Lancers, who were clinging to an 18-16 lead, took advantage of three Scott City errors to cruise to a 25-18 victory.

St. Pius was all smiles heading into Game 3.

Scott City's Mikah Simpson dives for the ball during Game 3 of their Class 2 sectional against St. Pius on Saturday at Scott City High School. Check out more photos from the match in our gallery at semoball.com. (Laura Simon)

"We play pretty well under pressure," Held said. "We have fun with it. We love the game of volleyball, so we're going to do what we can to keep smiling out there and not get down."

The relaxed play and composure made the difference in the finale.

St. Pius got two consecutive kills from Grace Richmeyer and Madeline Kassen, both freshmen, to break an 18-18 deadlock.

A Scott City error gave the Lancers a 21-18 lead.

Again, the Rams never folded.

Scott City battled back to tie it at 22-22 before Hermann called a timeout.

"I called a play," Hermann said. "An offensive play we wanted to run and just reminded them to keep the communication up and target passes and to run their offense. I don't think I had any magic words. Sometimes it's good to just stop the momentum of the game and just take a breath."

Magic words or not, it worked.

Kassen tipped a ball over two Scott City blockers, Held had a huge kill and Scott City sent a hit wide to set off a jubilant celebration for St. Pius.

"That was just a huge win," Held said. "The entire time we were like it was going to come down to who wants it more. We were both really talented teams. We knew they were undefeated. We felt like a lot of the pressure was on them, so we just had to come out firing, and I think we did.

"The loud atmosphere in here kind of got to us. We were having problems hearing, a little miscommunication, but in the third game we just played our hearts out."

It was a bitter ending to a remarkable season for the Rams, who finished 30-1-1.

"I was definitely blessed with a great group of seniors," Hoffman said. "They welcomed me. They listened. They worked hard for me. Really, the success of this season is because of them."