Double Duty

Kelsi Martin pulled a rare double-duty trick after Blue Springs South’s home volleyball match Thursday against Truman.

The Jaguar senior setter helped her team to a 25-19, 25-14 victory of the Patriots then promptly proceeded to band practice on the school’s parking lot adjacent to the gymnasium. With band practice on Tuesdays and Thursdays — game night for the majority of the Jaguars’ volleyball games — Martin finds time to hone her craft on the hardwood and on the flute to be a constant endeavor.

“It’s hard — especially to go straight from volleyball to band and I don’t get home until 9:30 (p.m.),” Martin said. “But, it’s completely worth it — I love both of them.”

Martin said a brisk second game in which the Jaguars allowed only 14 points enabled her to get to the 6-9 p.m. band practice at a decent enough time. On Tuesday, for instance, Martin didn’t get to practice until 8 p.m. after the Jaguars’ win on the road at Raytown South.

“Get it over, get to practice,” Martin said of Thursday’s win. “Get it all in.”

And how long has Martin been playing the flute?

“Since 6th grade,” she said, before adding nothing beats a Friday night band performance under the lights at halftime of a Jaguar football game. “It’s so cool. Just the feeling when you perform, it’s the best feeling I’ve ever had.”

Martin and her teammates had a brief fight on their hands against Truman. The Patriots battled valiantly in the first game, before the Jaguars seized control of the match.

“I thought both teams played a really well-rounded game in the first match,” Truman head coach Denise Craig. “And then you kind of get that deflated feeling. Yes, we made more errors and yes, they were very, very good, but we really like the way we played the first game. Give all the credit to them, they came out smoking.”

Senior middle hitter Katie Willits had four kills and one block to lead Truman, 1-1. She said the difference in the match was the Jaguars played more as a cohesive unit than the Patriots.

“It’s not like they were a better team than us, it was just that they were playing more as a team,” Willits said. “It’s like our second game of the season — we have like six seniors trying to mesh people in. We could have played better, I could have played better. It’s just like we’ll have to get them next time. There’s nothing to be mad about.”

Kelsi Martin pulled a rare double-duty trick after Blue Springs South’s home volleyball match Thursday against Truman.

The Jaguar senior setter helped her team to a 25-19, 25-14 victory of the Patriots then promptly proceeded to band practice on the school’s parking lot adjacent to the gymnasium. With band practice on Tuesdays and Thursdays — game night for the majority of the Jaguars’ volleyball games — Martin finds time to hone her craft on the hardwood and on the flute to be a constant endeavor.

“It’s hard — especially to go straight from volleyball to band and I don’t get home until 9:30 (p.m.),” Martin said. “But, it’s completely worth it — I love both of them.”

Martin said a brisk second game in which the Jaguars allowed only 14 points enabled her to get to the 6-9 p.m. band practice at a decent enough time. On Tuesday, for instance, Martin didn’t get to practice until 8 p.m. after the Jaguars’ win on the road at Raytown South.

“Get it over, get to practice,” Martin said of Thursday’s win. “Get it all in.”

And how long has Martin been playing the flute?

“Since 6th grade,” she said, before adding nothing beats a Friday night band performance under the lights at halftime of a Jaguar football game. “It’s so cool. Just the feeling when you perform, it’s the best feeling I’ve ever had.”

Martin and her teammates had a brief fight on their hands against Truman. The Patriots battled valiantly in the first game, before the Jaguars seized control of the match.

“I thought both teams played a really well-rounded game in the first match,” Truman head coach Denise Craig. “And then you kind of get that deflated feeling. Yes, we made more errors and yes, they were very, very good, but we really like the way we played the first game. Give all the credit to them, they came out smoking.”

Senior middle hitter Katie Willits had four kills and one block to lead Truman, 1-1. She said the difference in the match was the Jaguars played more as a cohesive unit than the Patriots.

“It’s not like they were a better team than us, it was just that they were playing more as a team,” Willits said. “It’s like our second game of the season — we have like six seniors trying to mesh people in. We could have played better, I could have played better. It’s just like we’ll have to get them next time. There’s nothing to be mad about.”

The Jaguars were led by freshman setter Janie Morrison’s 14 assists, junior outside hitter Carly Sojka’s 12 kills and sophomore middle hitter Julia Towler’s 10 kills. Freshman defensive setter Alexa Armendariz led the Jaguars’ defense with eight digs.

“Very good. Very good,” Jaguars first-year head coach Deb Becker said of her team’s early 2-0 start to the season. “(We’re) passing well, our defense is doing very good. We attack the ball strong — we’re a very good attacking team. We’ve played error free the past two games, which helps.

“Obviously, we can improve our serving. We serve aggressively and that’s our goal; to serve aggressively. When you do that you now you’re going to have some errors, but in regards to our overall game, I think we’re doing the right things.”

Becker added the Jaguars will face a stiff challenge Tuesday against cross-town nemesis Blue Springs.

“Come Tuesday night, we’ll have a true test against Blue Springs,” Becker said. “They just had a big (win) against O’Hara, so that’ll be a true test for our team.”