PUXICO -- With a senior serving and a tall junior in the middle of the net, Clearwater found the rhythm for an upset victory.
A big run by the No. 5 Lady Tigers in each set was enough to mentally affect No. 4 Puxico and the Lady Tigers went on to win 25-13, 25-14 and advance to the MSHSAA Class 2 District 2 semifinals against top seed and defending district champion Bloomfield at 5 p.m. Tuesday in Puxico. The championship will follow at 7:30 p.m.
Clearwater had a seven point run midway through the first set to take an 18-9 lead, and opened the second set with an 8-1 run. Both spurts had senior Halle Gooch serving and middle hitter Faith Hoppe cleaning up at the net. Puxico's longest run of the night was two points, which it managed several times.
In their two previous meetings this season, Clearwater (11-6-3) and Puxico (5-12-2) split in the Lady Tiger Jamboree in August and Puxico won 2-1 at Clearwater three weeks later.
"We weren't mentally prepared for the game, I believe. We started doing really well at the beginning, and then once we got down, unfortunately, it is a domino effect," Puxico coach Hannah Wight said. "We've just really struggled with communicating properly and it affected our gameplan a little bit, as well."
Hoppe led Clearwater with 10 kills. She punished an overpass for the team's first kill of the night and consistently controlled the middle of the net.
"She's the player that we go to. She's our main hitter but then we have some other hitters who help us. She is pretty confident and can put the ball down when we need her to," Clearwater coach Lisa Ayers said.
Gooch added two kills and six aces that anchored Clearwater's biggest runs.
"I think it gets us excited and motivates us, but I try to tell the girls to stay focuses and confident because we weren't expected to be here," Ayers said.
The Lady Tigers led 11-9 after some back and forth play to open the night when Gooch took the serve. She repeatedly picked on the same corner spot against Puxico.
Hoppe drilled back-to-back kills and Puxico was called for an illegal hit before Gooch landed four straight aces. The last of which put Clearwater ahead 18-9 and had Puxico calling a timeout.
The Lady Indians then handled the serve and Faith Oliver scored a block to get the ball out of Gooch's hands, but Puxico wouldn't get any closer than eight points in the final possessions.
"I think that probably, at the moment, not being as mentally prepared as we should have been for this game ... I feel like once they got on those runs we sat back and fell into a safe mode. You're never going to reach your goals or accomplish things being safe. You have to take risks and work hard for that and I feel like we didn't do that and Clearwater did," Wight said.
Gooch opened the second set with the serve and added two more aces. Hoppe helped out with three kills and the Lady Indians made three errors to quickly fall behind.
"I think our confidence is up and that we are passing much better and we took care of the ball. A couple of times we had it in the net but ...," Ayers said.
Puxico got the serve back after a net violation and shortly thereafter, an ace by freshman Katlyn Brotherton cut the deficit to five points, but it was as close as the Lady Indians would get.
"We came a long way. These girls, from the very beginning, I'd say a black and white difference. We basically started out the season not knowing some basic fundamentals even," Wight said.
"We watched them win games we weren't supposed to win, that no one thought we could do. I think not only that they surprised themselves but that they surprised a lot of people, respect wise. They truly never gave up and they were always willing to work."
Oliver, one of three outgoing seniors, led Puxico with three kills and a block kill. Puxico, which played three freshman and five underclassmen on varsity this season, will also lose seniors Lea Shepard and Gabby Baker.
"We are going to miss them a lot. They were a large contribution to our team. It was difficult for them coming into their senior year with a brand new coach, of course," said Wight, who took over the team this season from April Burchard. "I thought the seniors really did well with adjusting. We are definitely going to miss them for next year."