Hazelwood West Volleyball Cruises Past Rival Hazelwood Central

The Hazelwood West High School girls volleyball team won its fourth straight match Wednesday night at home, by taking a spirited two-games-to-none decision over archrival Hazelwood Central.

The Wildcats, who lost their first two matches of the season back in August, but have won every match they’ve played in September, outlasted the Hawks in a highly competitive first game, then dominated the visitors in the second game, for an eventual 25-20, 25-15 win for the home team.

“I was disappointed with that first game,” said West head coach Michael Vaughn. “The girls know they played very sloppy that first game.

“After the first game, we came back in the huddle and said, ‘you shouldn’t be satisfied with that kind of win.’"

Vaughn said the good thing about this team of girls is they know when they’ve played a sloppy game.

Part of the reason for West’s sloppy play might have been due to the feisty start by Hazelwood Central.

The Hawks actually grabbed the lead early on thanks to the hot hitting of senior McKenzie Scott, who had four kills in the first game to help the Hawks nab a 6-4 lead.

“One of our things is we want to start strong and end strong,” said Central head coach Jen Leskowski. “Today, I think we started off strong, but we didn’t go to the end of the match.”

That’s because West got going midway through the first game.

The Wildcats quickly regained the lead at 10-8, then extended their advantage to 19-11, before finally taking four of the last five points for a 25-20 win.

“There were small stretches, maybe three or four points, where we lose our focus,” Vaughn said. “But the good thing about this team is we just turn it right back on.”

West really turned it on in the second game, jumping out to a 6-1 lead behind the dominant net-play of senior Sara Gregor.

The Wildcats’ top hitter, who had a match-high 11 kills on Wednesday, also had four blocks, including two at the start of game two that help West gain its advantage.

From there, fellow hitters Kaylin Perkins and Meagan Tarrant helped Gregor dismiss the Hawks in rather quick fashion.

“The big thing with our team is we want to establish our middle blocker,” Vaughn said. “And (Gregor) did that. And you can see, once we establish that middle blocker, then our right side and outside hitters could get in a good one-on-one situation.”

The next Suburban North Conference games for both teams will be Wednesday, when the Hawks will play at McCluer North, while West will be at Hazelwood East.

The matches that night are also scheduled to start at 5 p.m.