ShawneeDispatch.com

With a schedule like the one the Mill Valley volleyball team has played this season, it’s been difficult for such a young team to develop consistency.

At times Jaguars coach Kimberly Service has seen signs that her team was about to jell — times such as Oct. 2 when Mill Valley drilled Gardner-Edgerton and took Class 5A No. 1 St. Thomas Aquinas to the wire in a narrow two-game loss. Coincidentally, both of those opponents happen to be in Mill Valley’s substate.

There also were days such as Oct. 4 when the Jaguars scrapped their way to a runner-up finish at the Ottawa Invitational.

There have been many more days like Tuesday, however, when the Jaguars were clicking on all cylinders in spurts and seemingly at a standstill at other moments while never quite playing a complete game.

The inconsistency cost Mill Valley another match on Tuesday when it dropped a 25-21, 25-15, 25-20 decision to visiting Olathe South.

“They just didn’t come out with the level of intensity and the effort that they needed consistently as a group,” Service said. “There were some players who stepped up and had very good games, but as a whole, as a group of 11 players, they couldn’t bring it together. We’ve been down this road so many times this season — a lot of woulda, shoulda, coulda’s … it’s unfortunate.”

Mill Valley had plenty of chances to defeat Olathe South. The teams spent the first half of game one swapping points. South eventually built a 14-10 lead, but Mill Valley countered with an 8-2 run and took an 18-16 lead. Eventually the game was tied 20-20 before South closed on a 5-1 run. Three Mill Valley service errors cost the Jaguars valuable points in the narrow contest.

Game two was one-sided. Olathe South used a trio of early service aces by Kaitlynn Pelger to take a 5-2 lead. Mill Valley got no closer than four points the rest of the way, handing South four points on service errors and struggling to block Pelger as she dominated the net.

South used an ace and four kills to take a 5-0 lead in game three before Mill Valley took a timeout. After that, Jana Boss sparked a furious comeback with an ace and some strong defensive play as the Jaguars evened the game at 7-7. The score was tied four more times before South used an 8-2 run to pull away.

Service said she anticipated that the Jaguars might be flat against South.

“We didn’t have a fantastic practice yesterday, and that kind of sets the tone for how we go out and we play,” she said.

She is optimistic that her team can once again regain the form it displayed at the Ottawa Invitational and at a few other matches. Her squad has played well on Saturdays — both at Ottawa and in taking third at the Baldwin Invitational. The Jaguars have a dual at 5 p.m. Thursday at Shawnee Mission South and then play at 8 a.m. Saturday at the Kaw Valley League Tournament at Lansing.

The league tournament is new this year, and it allowed KVL schools to free up numerous dates on the schedule to play tougher opponents.

“We have played well in tournament settings,” Service said. “I’m not really sure what the difference is other than that we mentally prepare ourselves that it’s going to be a long day and we’re going to have a lot of matches and we have to be prepared for that.

“I think it’ll be exciting to play in a league tournament. I don’t know that it’s the best format for determining who’s the league champion, but it’s definitely something new. I’m certainly hoping that it’ll be a tournament where we’ll get to play a mix of schools of varying levels and get to rebuild some confidence and have a few good strokes happen for us and put a few good matches together in a row so that we can go into our substate with some confidence.”

The Jaguars are 14-15 this season. After the KVL tournament they close out the regular season at 5 p.m. Tuesday with a dual at Shawnee Mission Northwest.