POTOSI — The St. Vincent Lady Indians volleyball season ended in the second round of the Class 3 District 2 tournament. Coming into the tournament as the 5th seed, St. Vincent had to beat the 4th seeded North County. The Indians beat the Raiders in 5 sets to move on.
After beating North County, St. Vincent had to play the top seed undefeated Potosi, who hosted the tournament as well. The Indians lost in 3 sets to the Trojans to end the season.
This was the first year the Indians had to play up a class, after the MSHSAA reclassification for private schools.
“We knew we had a tough challenge going into districts playing up a class from last year, and being ranked 5th out of 6 teams,” head coach Sue Verseman said. “We really feel we put together a true team effort by defeating North County in the first round. We had great passing from our back row along with consistent setting from Addie Gremaud and Emery Amschler that allowed four hitters to be successful on the front line. Sara Unterreiner and Katie Lobbig each got 10 and 8 kills respectively. Sophie Verseman was named KFMO Player of the game with 21 kills and 5 blocks. Unfortunately we couldn’t produce the same results against the undefeated Potosi team last Thursday. They play a much faster game that just makes it hard to compete against.”
The Indians finished the year with a record of 7-15-1, down from last year when they were playing in Class 2, where they won the state championship. St. Vincent had a tough schedule in their year in class 3, facing 14 opponents who were ranked in the top 25 of their respective classes, and 7 opponents who finished in the top 10 in the state.
It was Versemen’s first year as head coach, she said she was proud of the improvement she saw in the team, who lost their first 6 before going on a run of wins in the middle of the year.
“We are incredibly proud of the growth this season, “ Verseman said. “We feel all kids stepped up and worked hard. We saw improvement at all levels in each girl. We knew districts were going to be tough from the start this year and we were really impressed with their fight all the way to the end.”
St. Vincent won its second consecutive Jefferson County Athletic Association small schools conference championship. Two players reached personal milestones on the season as well.
Sophie Verseman reached 500 career blocks and 200 career kills. Paige Leible reached 500 career digs.
