WARDSVILLE - If the Jefferson City Lady Jays volleyball team had a checklist for the season, beating the Blair Oaks Lady Falcons would have been toward the end of it.
The series between the two teams is just in its fourth year, but Blair Oaks had won each of the first three meetings, adding on to a 2015 win in tournament play.
The Lady Jays put one in their win column Tuesday night, spoiling the Lady Falcons' Senior Night with a 25-19, 25-15 win.
"We're feeling pretty good about the way our girls are playing right now," Lady Jays coach Lisa Hoffmeyer said. "We feel like we're gaining a little confidence and a little momentum in these big wins like this against a crosstown rival and a great program."
Tuesday's loss, coupled with Saturday's championship loss to Southern Boone in the Versailles Tournament, gives Blair Oaks back-to-back losses for the first time since the 2014 season.
"Jeff City did a really good job," Blair Oaks coach McKenzie Bennett said. "There were some really good things that came out of the first set. The second set, we kind of beat ourselves a little bit on serve-receive and passing too tight to the net."
The first set began with a 4-0 run by Jefferson City, only to have Blair Oaks answer with four straight points.
Elsie Villmer had two kills in a three-point stretch to put Blair Oaks ahead 7-5, its largest lead in either set.
"We talked about a couple areas we thought they were going to attack, and sure enough, they did early," Hoffmeyer said. "But I felt like we responded pretty quickly."
Jefferson City reeled off five straight points, getting kills from Sarah Linthacum, Kayla Walters and Annabelle Maassen, followed by blocks from Walters and Linthacum.
The seesaw battle continued, as the Lady Jays' lead disappeared following three straight errors to tie the score at 11.
A kill by Emma Schroeder, followed by a kill from Mariah Radmacher, gave Blair Oaks a 15-14 lead. But after a service error, the remainder of the set belonged to Jefferson City.
Maassen recorded four kills in a five-point stretch to give the Lady Jays a 20-17 lead. Maassen had 36 swings in the two sets and finished with a match-high 14 kills.
"You can literally watch her survey a court, and then pinpoint the ball exactly where she wants it to go," Hoffmeyer said. " She is just so good about attacking the spots that we ask her to get the ball to. But her awareness is better than any kind of pregame planning that we could ever give to anybody."
After Blair Oaks got back-to-back points on a kill by Villmer and a Jefferson City attack error, the Lady Jays finished the set on a 5-0 run.
The Lady Falcons came out and took a 3-1 lead in the first set, getting kills from Radmacher and Schroeder and then an ace from Radmacher.
"We served aggressively tonight," Bennett said. "Whether or not we were losing, we had very aggressive serves, which kept us in it.
"We just could only get a couple points at a time, and then they would get a couple more than what we did."
The Lady Jays responded with a 6-0 run and never trailed again.
"We did a really nice job tonight, and really all season long, of responding to that adversity, in those moments that can go south," Hoffmeyer said.
A kill from Radmacher and an ace from Madison Mitchell closed the gap to 12-10, but Maassen had a kill on a tip to slow Blair Oaks' momentum. Three straight errors by the Lady Falcons extended the Lady Jays' lead to 16-10.
"We do that a lot, getting ourselves in a little bit of a predicament," Bennett said, "and then we've got to constantly fight back."
With an 18-14 lead, Jefferson City closed the second set with ease, getting three kills from Walters during a 7-1 run to finish the night.
"Early in the season, if we could pick out a weakness, the biggest one we showed early was an inability to finish sets," Hoffmeyer said. " We have now overcome that, that we do have to put 25 points on the board. That's what our job is."
Walters finished with six kills, while Maassen posted a double-double, adding 14 digs. Paige Reeser had 21 assists for the Lady Jays and Walters finished with three blocks.
Radmacher and Villmer each had six kills for Blair Oaks, while Mitchell finished with 17 assists. Martin also tallied five digs.
Before the match, Blair Oaks' four seniors - Madison Irvin, Martin, Mitchell and Radmacher - were recognized for Senior Night. They are two wins from guiding the Lady Falcons to their fourth 30-win season in the past five years.
"They're a good group of kids, they're a fun group of kids to coach," Bennett said. "They are good leaders, off and on the court."
Blair Oaks (28-4) wraps up the regular season Thursday at Versailles.
"We just have to finish the regular season strong so we have a good footing as we go into the postseason," Bennett said.
Jefferson City (27-3-2) plays a doubleheader Friday in Nixa. The Lady Jays play Kickapoo first, starting with the freshman match at 1 p.m., then they take on Nixa at 5 p.m.
"Some people look at you like you're crazy when you schedule that going into districts," Hoffmeyer said. "We feel pretty confident with this group going in, where we can compete with anybody in the state."
In the JV match, Blair Oaks won 26-24, 25-16.
For Blair Oaks, Payton Mitchell had five kills, Sam Laughlin had six digs, Emily Tellman served three aces and Madi Rissmiller and Tellman added 11 and 10 assists, respectively. Claire Stegeman and Hannah Linthacum each had five kills for the Lady Jays and Abby Blake recorded 15 assists. Stegeman added six digs.
Blair Oaks also won the freshman match in three sets, 25-18, 24-26, 25-22.
Abbi Wieberg had 11 kills and six digs to lead the Lady Falcons, while Emma Scruggs had 16 assists and Gigi Ochoa finished with three blocks and two aces. For Jefferson City, Elicia Theroff had nine kills and eight aces, Grace Splading finished with 12 digs and Lauren Reid posted 19 assists.
III
Jefferson City outside hitter Annabelle Maassen was recognized by MaxPreps and the American Volleyball Coaches Association on Monday as the Missouri volleyball player of the week.
In the Lady Jays' three wins last week against Helias, Hickman and Fatima, Maassen recorded 48 kills and 19 digs in seven sets played. Following Tuesday's match at Blair Oaks, she is eight kills shy of 400 for the season.
"Locally, we know she's great," Lady Jays coach Lisa Hoffmeyer said. "But I think it's really good for her to see that, outside of our local area, she is being recognized as one of the top players in the state of Missouri."