Scott City breezes by Oran

SCOTT CITY -- Jumping out to early leads on both sets on Tuesday, the Scott City Lady Rams swept the visiting Oran Lady Eagles in straight sets, 25-14 and 25-7.

"I thought the girls played well," Scott City head coach Steven Hendricks said. "I was happy to see that they stayed up, stayed excited the whole time and performed to the level that they are able to."

After giving up the first point of the night, the Lady Rams kicks off a dominant run that included them taking the next 11-straight points.

Though Oran was able to close back to within eight points at 13-5 with a short-lived run, Scott City continued to push ahead and forced the Lady Eagles to burn their final timeout when an Abbie McAlister ace made it 19-7.

With time to regroup, Oran let up the next two points before making their best run of the night with Chrissy Sauceda behind the line.

Trailing 21-7, Oran went on to take the next five-straight points, including four on aces by Sauceda before a missed kill gave the Lady Rams control once again.

A kill by Natalie Woods set up game-point before an unreturned serve by Oran sealed the Scott City win.

"Towards the end of the first set we came on a little bit, but it was too late," Lady Eagles' head coach Paul Bucher said. Chrissy came on a little bit with her serve and got a couple kills for us. Scott City is good. Their attackers are pretty legit.

"We were getting hammered with bullets and were doing pretty good for the most part as far as getting them back up, but we couldn't do anything with them."

Trying to rebound in the second set Oran stayed close early as a tip over the net from Molly Webb kept her team within two points at 5-3. Much like in their 11-point first set run, however, Scott City used a big rally to separate themselves mid set.

Almost mirroring their first game run, Scott City took 11 of 12 points to put Oran firmly in their rearview.

Late in the rally, back-to-back kills from McAlister and Hailey Clayton forced the Lady Eagles to use a timeout to try and refocus. After the break, the Lady Rams went on to take the next three points before a 7-3 run push them ahead 23-7.

A serve by Clayton clipped the net before bouncing over to set up match-point before one final ace by Clayton closed out a Scott City win.

On his team not letting up, Henricks said, "They stayed focus the whole time. I was glad to see their focus and mental toughness. We got into a little bit of a rhythm, kept going and didn't let up."

Leading Scott City's front court attack, Natalie Woods had five kills on the match while McAlister and Boswell had four apiece. Clayton added three kills to the Lady Rams' cause.

McAlister and Clayton also had three aces each to tie for the team lead and Boswell and Woods both contributed two.

For Oran, McKenzie Belt and Sauceda had sic and four aces respectively while Webb added a pair of kills to the Lady Eagles' cause.

Next up, Scott City will travel to Sikeston to play the Lady Bulldogs on Thursday at 6 p.m. Oran will visit Sikeston on Monday with play starting at 6 p.m.