Kennett downs Lady Lions in league battle

Staff photo by Mike Buhler Kennett's Brea Riddle (right) is blocked by Senath-Hornersville's McCall Latting during the first set of Tuesday's Bootheel Conference volleyball at Kennett High School. [Click to enlarge]

Hard-fought, intense battles are the norm whenever the Kennett Lady Indians and the Senath-Hornersville Lady Lions meet on the volleyball court.

Tuesday was no exception, as the Lady Tribe needed a pair of rallies to hold off Senath-Hornersville 25-22, 25-20 in a Bootheel Conference contest at Kennett High School.

The win stood out all the more for Kennett, which was not 100 percent as it faced a Lady Lions squad fresh off of winning the Gideon Invitational over the weekend.

"It was a good team win for us," Kennett coach Laura Ort said. "Ciara (Dewrock has) been sick. Taylor (Wake) didn't have her best game tonight and other people just stepped up. You've got to give credit to Senath -- they blocked us a ton of times in that opening game (and) we had to make some adjustments."

Indeed, Senath-Hornersville dominated most of the first set, building up a 21-14 lead before the Lady Indians closed the set on an 11-1 run after a timeout.

"We just kind of talked about playing the way we played all year, hitting the ball and covering for one another," said Ort. "They came together, played like a team and came back."

In the second set, the Lady Lions once again had the early lead, but a hard kill by Brea Riddle cut the lead to 17-16 and sparked Kennett on a run to take the lead for good.

Riddle had another strong all-around game with six kills, two aces and seven assists, while had Dewrock seven kills and an ace, Samantha Risner had five kills, Chrisie Burrow dished off nine assists and Jodi Vancil finished with two kills, an ace and seven digs.

Tuesday's win also gave Kennett (15-2-1, 5-0 Bootheel) a share of the conference title, which the Lady Indians can win outright with a victory over Hayti.

In jayvee play, the Lady Tribe won 25-15, 19-25, 26-24 to also go to 5-0 in the Bootheel Conference, and can also win the league title outright with a victory against Hayti.

Kennett is back on the court Thursday when it travels to district rival Doniphan.

Notes: Tuesday's game was the first time in several years the Lady Indians and Senath-Hornersville did not go three sets in varsity play. … Tuesday was also the Lady Lions' first conference loss.

Baseball
Fall tourney
Cooter 3, Campbell 2
At Cooter, the Camels lost to the top-seeded Cooter Wildcats in the Fall Tournament semifinals on Tuesday.

Cooter scored twice in the bottom of the fifth inning on misplayed double-play grounders, and once in the bottom of he sixth on back-to-back doubles with two outs.

The Camels managed four hits and two runs off of all-state pitcher Aaron McCaig, including two each by Kyle Matthews and Dylan Lynn.

McCaig threw very well for Cooter, striking out 11 and allowing only four hits. McCaig finish the fall season with a 7-1 record with 77 strikeouts in 49 innings.

Parker Watkins, Zach Watkins, and Charles Copeland had two hits each for the Wildcats.

Matthews took the loss for the Camels, pitching all six innings, giving up eight hits, walking none while striking out seven.

In the other semifinal game, Bernie defeated Senath-Hornersville 7-5 in nine innings.

The championship game is set for today between Bernie and Cooter.