The Saxony Lutheran volleyball team played in a pair of tournaments in the closing weeks of the regular season to prepare for the upcoming district tournament.
In the SEMO conference tournament, the Crusaders played three games in one night, taking 2-0 wins over Portageville and Cape Girardeau before losing in the final to Jackson.
Saxony coach Dawn Ozark said the tournament was a great opportunity to play against a varied group of conference opponents and get valuable experience that will serve them well in the upcoming district playoffs.
“We have an exciting conference, a diverse conference, a big conference,” Ozark said. “We were seated second and we knew that it was going to be tough going into it. We took on Portageville, we were able to secure the next one and then took on Notre Dame to be able to make it to the championship. We played Jackson, that was our second time playing Jackson that week. And so that’s a big opportunity for us to compete against a really great team that Dave Mirly has, and I thought we played really well. I thought that we did what we came there to do, and finishing second, we were really proud of that.”
Regular season wins followed for the Crusaders against Woodland, Oak Ridge, advance and Cape Girardeau Central before their next tournament, the Jackson Varsity Tournament.
Saxony Lutheran won one of four in the Jackson Tournament, beating Winona and falling to Lindbergh, Nerinx Hill and Kirkwood.
Ozark said despite what the record showed, the tournament was a good thing for her players, playing well against tough teams and winning sets in two of the three losses.
“I talked to the girls about not necessarily being just about wins and losses, but what we were able to do as far as prepping us to go deeper into our season,” Ozark said. “I felt like we gave a really solid performance and we went out and we worked hard. A lot of the things that we were working on during practice. We were able to put it into play during that tournament. So I’m really proud of how we ended up, even though the scoreboard doesn’t necessarily show all of the great things we were to do on Saturday.”
The Crusaders returned to home court action following the tournament on Monday night, making quick work of Kennett in three sets. Ozark said they were able to work on improving their serving in the win.
“They’re a scrappy team and we enjoy playing them every year,” Ozark said. “Tonight, we just really played everything we’ve been working on. And we made minimal errors which help us be so successful out there. We kind of had a couple of games where our serving really wasn’t on point, so tonight, to be able to get back into that was really one of the things we wanted to focus on.”
Two regular season matches remain for the Crusaders before the district tournament begins on October 22.
