sports@standard-democrat.com
CHARLESTON -- Picking up their third win in the last four games, the Sikeston Lady Bulldogs pulled off a two set sweep of the Charleston Lady Bluejays on Monday, 25-12 and 25-7.
"This was our first conference game, so it's nice to get that started and out of the way," Sikeston head coach Steve Beydler said. "Oran is our place (tonight) for another conference game right away so hopefully catch some of the momentum we've been running with the last few matches and see what we can do."
After a slow start, Sikeston quickly seized control of the first set with a 5-1 run that forced Charleston into a timeout at 8-3.
The Lady Bluejays were able to hang within five points all the way to 14-9 before four straight points from Sikeston gave the Lady Bulldogs an 18-9 lead and made Charleston burn their final timeout.
Coming out of the break, Sikeston got an ace from Monica Carter and back-to-back kills from Trenice Greer as they continued to roll.
Finishing the set on a 7-3 run, the Lady Bulldogs set the opportunity for a sweep.
"When they sent the ball over we were there," Beydler said. "We sucked it up and tried to run some plays tonight, tried to get some things rolling."
Beginning with a 5-1 advantage, Sikeston made sure there were no letdowns in the contest's second game. An ace from Greer put the Lady Bulldogs ahead 11-5 and another 4-point run put them ahead by 10.
Charleston answered with back-to-back points before the Lady Bulldogs put their best run of the night together to seal match.
Starting with two straight kills from Esther Chinwuko, Sikeston reeled off 10 consecutive points with one final ace from Carter closing out a 25-7 win.
"In the first game probably half their points were on our errors," Beydler said. "Then I told the girls this next game let's clean up our errors a little bit and if they get a point, let's make sure they earn it.
"So I think we played a lot cleaner in the second game. We didn't play unclean the first game, there was just a few errors that I wanted to see cleaned up."
Leading the Lady Bulldogs' effort, Trenice Greer had a team-high six kills on the contest to go along with 11 assists and three aces. Chinwuko was second on the squad with five kills while Courtney Hewitt and Victoria Knight added four and three kills to Sikeston's cause respectively.
Kalli Williams had five aces and a kill while Carter finished with three aces and a kill. Lauren Beydler was second on the team in assists with 10.
On her team's effort, Charleston head coach Angie Kimble said, "I think our girls were a little sluggish tonight.
"Maybe coming off of homecoming weekend on a Monday (caused some problems). Serves and served-received killed us. I think we could have played a lot better."
With the win the Lady Bulldogs move to 6-10 on the season. They'll host the visiting Oran Lady Eagles tonight at 6 p.m.
In Monday's junior varsity contest, Sikeston also pulled off the sweep by beating Charleston, 25-12 and 25-16.