Conference win

Sikeston sweeps past Oran in two sets

sports@standard-democrat.com

ORAN -- Looking to close out a straight-set SEMO Conference victory over the Oran Lady Eagles on Tuesday, the Sikeston Lady Bulldogs rallied back from a six-point deficit midway through the second game to win the match 25-16, 25-21.

"In second game we started getting sloppy in our passing," Sikeston coach Steven Beydler said. "Our passes weren't getting close enough to the setter to be able to do anything so she was running back trying to get to the ball.

"Without a good pass our setters our having trouble getting the ball and laying it right in front of somebody so that was a little struggle."

Coming off their first set win, the Lady Bulldogs stayed with the Lady Eagles to a 7-7 tie early in the second game before a 7-1 rally by Oran forced Sikeston to call a timeout down 14-8.

Regrouping after the timeout, the Lady Bulldogs slowly battled back before tying the game 17-17 on an ace by Lauren Beydler. Battling back and forth to 20-20, Sikeston was able to close to within two points of a win when an Oran served hit the net, followed by two straight missed kills by the Lady Eagles.

An ace by Trenice Greer put the Lady Bulldogs at match point before Asia Liggins closed out the game shortly after on a softly hit kill Asia Liggins on the left side of the net.

"When I called that timeout there I wasn't real happy with them because I felt like they were taking things a little too easy and being lazy," Steven Beydler said. "From the very start I said we can't do that, we have to go out and play our game and they weren't doing that.

"So they settled in a little bit better and slowly started chipping off a point or two and then finally got back into it so we got back in the lead."

Earlier in the night, it was Sikeston holding off an Oran rally midway through the game for a 25-16 win. Holding a 14-8 advantage, Sikeston saw the Lady Eagles rally for five straight points to close to within one at 14-13.

Thanks partly to a pair of aces from Greer, however, the Lady Bulldogs were able to once again pull away to a five-point lead. Keeping their distance to 21-16, Sikeston went on to score four straight points to seal the win.

"We played very streaky, in spurts," Lady Eagles' coach Sarah Heisserer said. "We dug a hole and then had to get out of it. We got within one in the first set and then just kind of fell apart again."

"We had like seven or eight balls going out of bounds in the first game. At least seven or eight (of Oran's points) our ones we hit out."

Leading Sikeston's attack was Greer, who finished the night with seven kills, three aces and nine assists and Liggins with seven kills, and ace and a block. Lauren Beydler had five aces and seven assists.

For Oran, Kali Mills had three kills and three digs with Stephanie Markham, Addie Kielhofner and Taylor Nenninger coming away with a pair of aces each.

With her team dropping her their eighth game of the season,

If the Lady Eagles are going to improve on their two wins this season, Heisserer stressed a need for better teamwork.

"Scott City is the only team I can say beat us," she aid. "Every other game I feel we beat ourselves. Our record is 2-8 now and seven of those eight losses we have beat ourselves. We just don't communicate. We don't work together."

Opening up the night, Oran's junior varsity pulled out a straight set win over Sikeston's junior varsity 25-15, 25-23. Oran's Chrissy Sauceda had a team-high six aces to go along with a dig, a kill and an assist. Cummins and Nenninger had a pair of aces each.

Oran will travel to Leopold to play the Lady Wildcats on Thursday at 6 p.m.

At 9-13 on the season, Beydler said they would spend their day off getting ready for the start of a tough stretch in the Lady Bulldogs schedule that starts with hosting Dexter on Thursday.

"We have a day in the gym so we have to work on some things," he said. "The last few nights we've run a 6-2, which we don't normally do. We got two victories doing it, but I just don't think we're going to continue doing it that way because when we play a high powered team like Dexter (it could give us troubles).

"If we take this lineup that we had tonight and try to play that against a high-powered offense that can really hit the ball I think we'll have a lot more struggles. So we're probably going to go back to our 5-1 and get back in to trying it that way."