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Warren Central's Arrionna Jenkins hits the ball during Thursday's volleyball match against St. Aloysius. (Ernest Bowker/The Vicksburg Post)

Volleyball players from St. Aloysius and Warren Central greet each other before their match on Thursday. Warren Central won 3-0 (25-8,25-8, 25-4). (Ernest Bowker/The Vicksburg Post)

St. Aloysius' Raegan Thornell, left, and Scarlett Coutch both go for the ball during Thursday's volleyball match against Warren Central. (Ernest Bowker/The Vicksburg Post)

Warren Central's Hannah Island (1) hits the ball over the net during Thursday's volleyball match against St. Aloysius. (Ernest Bowker/The Vicksburg Post)

St. Aloysius' Julia Moberley prepares to serve during Thursday's volleyball match against Warren Central. (Ernest Bowker/The Vicksburg Post)

Warren Central's Melissa Herrle prepares to serve during Thursday's volleyball match against St. Aloysius. (Ernest Bowker/The Vicksburg Post)

St. Aloysius' Camille Jeffers (8) watches the ball come toward her during Thursday's volleyball match against Warren Central. (Ernest Bowker/The Vicksburg Post)

Warren Central's Ka'ryn Henderson (16) sets the ball during Thursday's volleyball match against St. Aloysius. (Ernest Bowker/The Vicksburg Post)

St. Aloysius' Macy Stauble, left, and Harper Hill wait for a serve during Thursday's volleyball match against Warren Central. (Ernest Bowker/The Vicksburg Post)

Warren Central's Kennedi McKay (0) hits the ball during Thursday's volleyball match against St. Aloysius. (Ernest Bowker/The Vicksburg Post)

St. Aloysius' Raegan Thornell, center, prepares to hit the ball as teammates Harper Hill and Melanie Nunez (17) look on during Thursday's volleyball match against Warren Central. (Ernest Bowker/The Vicksburg Post)

St. Aloysius' Melanie Nunez hits the ball during Thursday's volleyball match against Warren Central. (Ernest Bowker/The Vicksburg Post)

Warren Central’s volleyball team looked like it was in midseason form in its home opener Thursday night. With as many matches as it’s played already, it should have.

The Lady Vikes only trailed for one point in three games, and blitzed St. Aloysius 3-0 (25-8, 25-8, 25-4). It was Warren Central’s ninth match in the past week, and the regular-season opener for St. Al.

“We’ve played a lot more and that definitely showed,” Warren Central coach Matthew Gullett said. “They’re (St. Al) coming a long way and she’s working with them. But we’ve played a lot and that’s tremendously helped — and we’ve played a lot of good competition and it shows. We played good.”

Warren Central played six matches at the MHSAA’s Mississippi Volleyball Invitational in Jackson last weekend and reached the semifinals of the Silver bracket. Included in that run were victories over Clinton — the first in program history after 21 consecutive losses — and Pearl.

It also split matches against Florence and Jackson Prep earlier this week before taking care of St. Al in straight sets.

The Lady Vikes’ next two matches are both against Pisgah, on Aug. 13 at Pisgah, and Aug. 15 on a neutral court at Florence High School.

“One of the biggest things I talked about with them tonight was make sure that we were executing,” Gullett said. “I had a few things with certain girls, like Ellie Tennison who did a great job serving there at the end, about keeping her back straight and not putting the ball in the net. (Alexis) Ables, who had a great kill in the third set, about where to hit the ball. Just little things with each one of the girls. All of them tonight had an individual goal to work on and they executed really well.”

St. Al began its second season of volleyball as a decided underdog — it did not win a match last season, while Warren Central went 22-12 — but was still hoping for a better showing.

The Lady Flashes were competitive against Warren Central in a scrimmage two weeks ago. On Thursday, the only time they led was after scoring the first point of the second game.

Warren Central scored the first eight points in game one, and the first 10 in game three. St. Al had a brief rally in the middle of game two to get within 16-7, and then Warren Central scored nine of the next 10 points to finish it out.

St. Al will play its next two matches on the road, at Madison-St. Joe on Aug. 13 and Christ Covenant on Aug. 15, before its home opener against Jackson Prep on Aug. 17.

“I don’t know what happened. We just didn’t have it together tonight, and that happens,” St. Al coach Allison McSherry said. “Pros have good days and bad days and this was one of ours.”

About Ernest Bowker

Ernest Bowker is The Vicksburg Post's sports editor. He has been a member of The Vicksburg Post's sports staff since 1998, making him one of the longest-tenured reporters in the paper's 140-year history. The New Jersey native is a graduate of LSU. In his career, he has won more than 50 awards from the Mississippi Press Association and Associated Press for his coverage of local sports in Vicksburg.

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