Entering its home match with St. Charles West on Monday, the Wright City girls’ volleyball team had a couple of trends working against it.

After a hot start this season, the Wildcats dropped three straight at the Orchard Farm Tournament.

That number paled in comparison to the numbers game Wright City faced in its non-conference foe, though, as West has lost nine straight and 12-of-13 all-time. The only time Wright City had bested West came on September 21, 2017.

Until Monday, that is.

Wright City overcame slow starts in the opening two sets to earn the 25-19, 24-26, 25-23, 25-15 win.

Senior Marli Burkhardt said that playing bigger schools this weekend helped ready Wright City for Monday.

“We went into that knowing we got to play some really challenging, high-class teams,” Burkhardt said. “We did some really good work this weekend, it just didn’t go our way. Tonight, is just a really huge accomplishment for us, especially for me, as a senior.”

Wright City (8-4) started the first two sets with identical 4-1 deficits.

In the first, the Wildcats took the lead 8-7 on an Emerson Wendt ace before pulling away.

The next set didn’t go as well, though. Wright City had to play from behind, finally catching the visiting Warriors and leading 24-23 before surrendering the final three points to even the match.

Wright City Coach Gabby Vogt said that, while the team may have let one set slip, what the Wildcats learned proved incredibly valuable throughout the rest of the match.

“They’re pretty resilient,” Vogt said. “If something isn’t going right, they try to find ways to make it go right. They try hard to read (the opposition). I think those first two sets, they were working to read the opposition and to figure them out.”

It looked as if Wright City had West, indeed, ‘figured out’ as the hosts led 20-12 in game four. The lead shrank until it was tied at 21 before kills by junior Madison Goodman and a pair from senior Jaiden Walch put the set out of reach.

Walch said it felt good to step up and help her teammates finish off the all-important set.

“I’m glad that our success is showing on the scoreboard instead of just us thinking how good we are,” Walch said. “It makes me very happy that I did (have key opportunities) and that I was able to help my team when my teammates needed me to step up.”

In the fourth, Wright City moved out to the lead and slowly grew it until Walch put down the final kill to end the match.

Kaylee Kneemiller led Wright City in the match with five blocks while Burkhardt paced the team with 26 digs. Walch collected 16 kills while seniors Tiana Sims and Hailey Billham added six each. Senior Josephine Grueneberg recorded 24 assists.

Vogt said the program’s futility against West was news to her.

That said, the team’s growth throughout the season likely made the victory possible.

“Being new to the program, I didn’t know that, so it’s shocking to hear that statistic,” Vogt said. “I think we approached tonight just as any other game. We’ve been able to clean things up to get to where we are tonight. Without the growth that the girls have had this season, tonight may not have been possible.” 

Wright City will next take to the court for an Eastern Missouri Conference match-up at Montgomery County tonight (Thursday) at 6:30 p.m.

Back on September 14, the Wildcats defeated Montgomery in three sets.