St. Vincent volleyball coach Darren Verseman had one message to his team following the second set.
Never quit.
That would have seemed tough for his team because of the fact that they had just seen Meadow Heights go on extended runs to put on exclamation point on what seemed like an impending district championship victory.
Until St. Vincent flipped the switch.
The third seeded Indians recovered from falling in the first two sets, quite convincingly to upset top seeded Meadow Heights in five sets (12-25, 17-25, 25-17, 25-21, 15-12) to claim the Class 1, District 4 title in Crystal City Tuesday. It is St. Vincent second consecutive district crown.
“We couldn’t let anything get us down to where we stopped playing,” Verseman said. “We found a way to snap out of a funk and got things changed around and we started believing in ourselves.”
That could have could have been hard to do as Meadow Heights (23-10) claimed the first set with a 16-2 run and the second set with a 16-3 run.
“It was handling all about handling that first serve,” Verseman said of the first two sets. “We couldn’t get it to our setters so we could do anything offensively. Our hitters basically didn’t even have a chance. We started feeling sorry for ourselves until we started to have success and saying to ourselves that we maybe could do this.”
Verseman found a hot hand in Kamille Graham who put her team on her back in the final three sets. She ended the game with 14 kills, 20 assists and 11 digs in the victory.
“You just have to go to her again and again until she cooled off,” Verseman said.
St. Vincent led the whole way in the third set building a lead as high as eight points before winning by the final margin of seven points.
Verseman felt like his team’s aggressive serving was the difference in the final three sets.
“In the first two sets we didn’t serve it particularly well,” he said. “We were just kind of lobbing it over right to people. When we started hitting the fall with some force it didn’t give them easy looks. Meadow Heights was basically hitting batting practice in the first two. They had to work harder to get balls to their hitters.”
In the fourth set, St. Vincent built an 8-4 lead until Meadow Heights battled back to tie the set at 9-9, before never trailing again.
The decisive moments in the fifth and final set belonged to Meadow Heights, but for the wrong reasons.
The Panthers missed two serves with the set tied 10-10 and 11-11, before St. Vincent closed the set with consecutive aces.
“You could feel the momentum turn when things like that happen” Verseman said. “I told the girls not to take their foot off the gas. We had to take advantage and we did. I felt like we were dead in the water after the first two and the girls rallied. It was amazing.”
Verseman would be the first to tell you that his team’s record is not impressive at 12-17-1, but he felt like he saw something during the district tournament that they could achieve something special. The Indians swept St. Paul Lutheran in the first round and defeated Crystal City in the district semifinals on Monday.
“We played each team during the season and we have gone through a lot this year,” Verseman said. “We just had to come together as a team and play better. We did that.I don’t know if we did anything spectacularly well tonight, except try and never quit.”
Emersyn Pitts had 10 kills, while Ava Layton contributed 20 assists. Defensively, Allison Bierk had 19 digs, while Maddie Dobbelare had 13 digs.
The task doesn’t get any easier for the Indians as they will take on Advance on Thursday in a Class 1 Sectional game at 6:30 p.m. in Perryville. The Hornets defeated Bell City in three sets on Tuesday in the Class 1, District 3 title game for its seventh straight district championship.
The Hornets defeated the Indians in four sets on Oct. 18.
“They have the best coach in the state of Missouri in Erin Hoffman, so anytime her team takes the court they are a threat,” Verseman said. They don’t make mistakes and keep pressure on the opponent at all times. It will be a tough game for sure.”
