The Blue Springs Wildcats lost more than the semifinal match of the Blue Springs South Volleyball Tournament Saturday evening.
They lost standout Becca Pettit, who injured her right knee in pool play earlier in the day.
“For the girls to come back and reach the semifinals after we lost Becca in our first match just tells you how focused and determined we were today,” Wildcats coach Katie Grusing said after the Wildcats fell to eventual tournament champion St. Thomas Aquinas 16-25, 25-22, 18-25 in the semifinals.
“She was going up on the front row and when she came down, she tweaked her left knee. She’s having an MRI Monday. Right now, we don’t think it’s as bad as we did when she got hurt. It looked pretty bad at the time, but we’re hoping we’re going to have her back this season.”
The Wildcats defeated Nixa 25-19, 25-12, Incarnate Word 25-18, 25-22, Raymore Peculiar 25-15, 25-19 in pool play and then edged Ozark 20-25, 27-25, 25-24 in a quarterfinal match that had the South gym buzzing.
That win set up the semifinal matchup with St. Thomas Aquinas.
The Wildcats and Lee’s Summit West, a team that lost to Nerinx Hall 25-11, 25-21, both had homecoming Saturday night so the coaches met and decided not to play in the third-place game.
St. Thomas Aquinas defeated Nerinx Hall 25-20, 25-20 for the championship.
“It was a long day of volleyball,” Wildcats middle hitter Lisa Henning said. “It was so hard without Becca. We really rebounded well after her injury. We knew she’d want us to play hard and we did. We almost made it to the championship – and I know all the girls would have rather played in the championship than gone to the dance.”
St. Thomas Aquinas front-row players Liz Gohde and Kelsey Sullivan neutralized Henning and Kirsten Erikson, who had dominated most teams throughout the tournament.
“St. Thomas Aquinas is big and very, very talented,” Henning said. “I’m not making any excuses. We were able to beat them the one game and I think that took a lot out of us and we just didn’t have much left for the third game.”
Erikson agreed, adding, “When you go up for a kill and they keep blocking it, it’s tough. We were able to get one win against them, and that was big from a mental point of view, but we just didn’t have enough to beat them and get to the championship match.”
Grusing said the mental aspects of the day eventually took a toll on her team.
“They did play a lot of volleyball and had to deal with Becca’s injury,” Grusing said. “We’ll work on the physical aspects of the game so that they don’t get tired after a long day of volleyball.”
It was an even longer day for Carmen Johnson, whose host Jaguars were 2-3 in the tournament.
“We were 2-3 and lost to a Lee’s Summit team we beat earlier this season,” Johnson said. “We’re young, and we’re a work in progress. There were some great teams here and the girls got to play against some of the best teams in the area.”
