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Sikeston takes down visiting Oran in straight sets
SIKESTON -- As they enter the home stretch of the season the Sikeston Lady Bulldogs are starting to build a little momentum following their 3-8-1 start to the season.
On Tuesday they picked up their second win and sweep in as many days with a 25-17, 25-18 decision over the visiting Oran Lady Eagles.
"We have a big match Thursday," Sikeston head coach Steve Beydler said, referring to their road game against Dexter. "We'll have four people missing because of the pageant so I was trying a few things in the lineup tonight to see if I had to do this Thursday night what we are going to do.
"I was trying to get people a chance to get their feet wet on varsity because we'll end up playing some young girls against Dexter."
Never trailing in either set against the Lady Eagles, the Lady Bulldogs came away from a 5-4 start to the first set and took six of the next seven points. This gave them a six-point lead near the midway point that never shrunk below four.
After back-to-back points from Oran made it 17-13, senior Esther Chinwuko picked up two kills to help Sikeston take the next three points on a 6-1 run.
A kill from Olivia Nash set up game-point at 24-16 and two points later a Morgan Merrill kill closed out the set.
"We got to run some combination plays, which we've been trying to do," Beydler said of his team's front court attack. "When you're playing reactionary it's hard to get that offense rolling like that. But tonight we were able to kind of dictate the pace and keep the ball in the hands of our setter a lot better to give her some options."
Much like the first set the Lady Eagles opened the second staying close early at 6-6, before a big Sikeston rally forced them to fight from behind.
A missed serve by Oran started a 6-2 run by Sikeston, who went on to take a five-point advantage, 15-10. A kill from Chinwuko and an ace from Hannah Cooper fed a run of four-straight points to give the Lady Bulldogs their biggest lead of the night, 19-11.
Oran made one last stand in a 5-1 rally to close within three points, 19-16, but back-to-back aces from Lauren Beydler left the Bulldogs two points from a win.
Oran took the next two points before a missed Lady Eagles' kill was followed up with a kill by Chinwuko that glanced off an Oran defender's hand to seal the win.
Leading Sikeston's effort, Chinwuko had a game-high eight kills and four aces while Merrill and Jordan Crawford had five and four kills respectively.
Lauren Beydler had a game-high 18 assists to go with an ace and a kill. Nash and Sadera Williams finished with a block each.
"Except for the very end of the second set (we kept momentum)," Steve Beydler said. "We let them get two or three points that I don't think we should have. It was just a couple miscommunication things and silliness that we weren't playing the way we should have to finish it out."
On the road against Charleston on Monday, Sikeston found similar success with a 25-15, 25-17 win. Chinwuko had 10 kills to give her 18 combined the past two games and Lauren Beydler had 20 assists, leaving her with 38 in two days, and four kills.
Each night the Lady Bulldogs junior varsity also came away with wins as well. They beat the Lady Bluejays' junior varsity 18-15, 25-22, 25-10 and Oran's junior varsity 25-20, 25-14.
Now at 5-8-1, the Lady Bulldogs will travel to Dexter to play the Lady Bearcats Thursday at 6 p.m. before coming back for three straight home games next week against Advance, Portageville and Notre Dame.