By Noah Dalton
MITCHELL – With a win over Bloomfield on Tuesday, Mitchell High School has improved to 13-4 on the season, claiming three straight victories.
The Bluejackets toppled the Cardinals in three straight sets, winning each in convincing fashion, 25-11, 25-9 and 25-6.
“That’s just challenging ourselves to be better and be cleaner throughout the whole game and I thought other than the start, really slow at the beginning and it wasn’t anything bad, we just weren’t quite in gear, but after that, it was pretty clean volleyball,” said Mitchell head coach Scott Saunders.
Saunders noted the terms serving when discussing their keys to victory on the night, with the Bluejackets finishing with 14 aces across the three sets, led by senior Brooke Reynolds, who had seven.
“I thought that our serve really caused them trouble because kept that constant pressure on them and made it quite a bit easier for us. They weren’t getting the good hard swings and when they were, we were in a good position and we dug them up and we didn’t make a lot of silly errors. It was just pretty good, clean volleyball,” Saunders said.
Reynolds also led the team in kills with 11, with Jocelyn Allen just behind her with 10.
Tuesday’s game was the first of three straight for Mitchell, who will face Shoals on Wednesday and Eastern Pekin on Thursday. Coming off a short break, the experienced Bluejackets will be ready for the tough slate of games ahead, according to Saunders.
“I think we’ve got enough experience. We’ve done this the last three or four years, having these three games, so I think a lot of our seniors have been through it. They understand that we’ve gotta go. So, if it was a young group of kids, I think it would be harder, but with the seniors we have, I think I think we’ll be ok in that regard,” he said.
“We’re challenging our kids to be better each day, so I think they know that challenge is there, those demands and expectations are there, so I think I think we’ll be ready to play tomorrow.”
