By Michael Cignoli (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
SPRINGFIELD — There aren’t many title contenders that have won more volleyball games than Springfield Catholic, which entered Thursday’s sectional match with 31 victories to its credit.
Now there are even fewer.
Grace O’Reilly had 17 kills, Hallie Cook added 10 more and the Fightin’ Irish defense played its most complete game of the season as the District 11 champions dominated throughout a 3-0 victory over El Dorado Springs in a Class 3 sectional at the O’Reilly Family Athletic Center.
The 25-13, 25-11, 25-11 win sets up a much-anticipated quarterfinal between the Fightin’ Irish (32-3-1) and Strafford (28-3-3) on Saturday at Strafford, which swept Forsyth in its sectional.
But there wasn’t a more high-profile first-round match — in any classification — than the one featuring Springfield Catholic and El Dorado Springs, which entered with 34 wins of its own. That was more than any other team still in title contention, making the Bulldogs-Fightin’ Irish showdown the only one of the state’s 40 sectional matchups featuring two 30-win teams.
It was also the only one that featured five 2020 all-state players, with O’Reilly and Cook joining teammate Cherie Sabini and El Dorado Springs standouts Reese Schaaf and Tevi Gurley.
It was the kind of matchup one might expect to see in the Final Four — if not later — and yet Springfield Catholic ended it in less than an hour, conceding just 35 points in a three-set sweep.
“Our defense was the best, probably, it’s been all year,” Fightin’ Irish coach Dan Evans said. “Our passing was great. We had great swings all night. I thought from the very first point, we came out and just dominated our side of the court and they just never could recover.”
With three all-state hitters, there’s never been any question about the Fightin’ Irish’s ability to dominate on offense. But they’ve renewed their focus on defense following an October 12 loss to Logan-Rogersville that all-but eliminated their shot at winning the Big 8 East championship.
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The payoff has been immediate, as Springfield Catholic has posted six consecutive sweeps and used its most impressive effort yet to take knock off this season’s winningest volleyball program.
“We covered tips,” Evans said. “We blocked great. Our back row play was great. From every facet of the game, I don’t know that we could do anything better. I told the girls in that last set I kept waiting — fearing my alarm would go off and it’d been some kind of a dream and this wasn’t really real. I’m so proud of them.”
It started at the net, with Cook, O’Reilly, Sabini, Ashlyn Witthar, Ava Walters and the front-row rotation taking turns blocking whatever Gurley, Schaaf and El Dorado Springs threw at them.
“We’ve really worked on our blocking,” Cook said. “It’s been kind of our primary focus because it gives our defense an opportunity to rest. Like tonight, when games are so fast-paced, if your blocks are up there and working hard it gives your defense a little break. It really refocuses them then and allows them to come back the next ball fighting.”
It continued in the back row, where the Fightin’ Irish dug out whatever balls made it through. That allowed them to run their offense exactly how they wanted to — and O’Reilly did the rest.
“They just outpowered us,” El Dorado Springs coach Ashley Rogers said. “We didn’t have an answer for Grace. She’s amazing — like amazing — and we just didn’t have an answer for her.”
The junior Division I prospect, who led the Fightin’ Irish in kills, said the loss to Logan-Rogersville was the low point of the season and the team came to a realization.
“We had kind of a slump in the past couple weeks,” O’Reilly said. “We all decided that’s not how we’re going down. We’re going to pull it all together, we’re going to play together and we’re going to have fun.”
It’s hard to imagine a team that went to the Final Four in Cape Girardeau last year and currently has 32 victories as ever being stuck in a slump, yet there’s a possible explanation for that. Of the first 10 teams the Fightin’ Irish faced in October, only three currently have winning records.
“This bunch, as the season progresses, it’s kind of like we go through teams that maybe aren’t as good,” Evans said. “We kind of play down a little bit to their level sometimes, but when it gets down to the time where we’re playing great teams they pick up their game.”
That was particularly evident in the second set, which the Fightin’ Irish closed out with a 14-3 run. And they never trailed any set by more than one point, a deficit they faced just three times.
“It was crazy,” Sabini said. “I have never seen my team play like that — ever. I just couldn’t believe it.”
El Dorado Springs has gone 118-18-10 over the past four seasons, but came up short in the past two district tournaments. Outside of Schaaf and Gurley, none of the healthy players had ever played in a state playoff game — far less experience than Springfield Catholic fielded.
“I think we showed our age a little bit,” Rogers said. “I only have two seniors on the floor — and one junior — so it is what it is. We just have to learn from this and try to improve for the future.”
Rogers lamented the Bulldogs, who have been in three different districts in the past three seasons, were shifted south this season after spending last year in a grouping with schools outside of southwest Missouri. Had they stayed there this fall, the Bulldogs’ road to Cape Girardeau would almost assuredly not have run through Springfield Catholic or Strafford.
“It just (stinks) that three of the best teams in the state have to meet at the sectional/quarterfinal level instead of maybe later on in the postseason,” Rogers said.
What if the lines had been drawn differently?
“Had we gone north, I think we’d be in a completely different boat right now,” Rogers said. “The competition is just — southwest Missouri has the best volleyball. I don’t care who wants to argue that point. They just do. And so, coming down here, I knew we were going to have a fight on our hands. I knew they were going to do well. Catholic is amazing and I strongly believe they will do very well from this point on.”
While missing out on the conference title might have provided the motivation the Fightin’ Irish needed heading into the postseason, they have a new one now that they’re in the thick of it.
“This bunch doesn’t want their high school career to end,” Evans said. “Grace is coming back, but Cherie and Hallie are seniors. They want to keep going. We’ve said from the start our goal is to go back to Cape. We’ve got one more huge game to do to get there, but that’s been our goal.”
That match is against a team the Fightin’ Irish has already seen twice this season.
The first was a 3-1 victory in which three of the four sets went beyond the standard 25 points, with Springfield Catholic ultimately prevailing 25-22, 25-27, 35-33, 28-26. The Indians swept the Fightin’ Irish 2-0 at the Strafford Volleyfest, so the teams have split the six sets they’ve played.
With a trip to the Final Four on the line, the stakes are higher than they have ever been. But Thursday night’s game showed, such an environment seems to suit Springfield Catholic.
