To reach the Class 3,  District 7  title game, the Warrenton volleyball team had to get through the defending state champs to do it.

After overcoming a weak first set, the Lady Warriors bounced back in the second, but it wasn’t enough to knock off Lutheran St. Charles, which defeated the Warriors 25-12, 25-21.

After dropping the first set, Warrenton came out firing in the second, jumping out to a 6-1 lead off of a kill and a stuff block by senior Leah Nelson. 

In the opening points of the match, junior Jacklyn Dickey served up a pair of aces. 

Warrenton coach Kristen McDowell said her team came out much more aggressively in the second set.

“We weren’t really aggressive in the first set,” McDowell said. “We were giving them free ball after free ball and with a team like that you can’t give them free balls over and over. I told the girls if we were going to go out we were going to go out swinging. They came out much more in the second set and did everything they could. I was really proud of them.”

But the Lady Cougars weren’t going down without a fight, rattling off three straight points to cut the lead to 6-4. The run was capped off by outside hitter Tori Vogt’s kill. The senior had seven kills in the second set. 

Another Vogt kill tied the game at 7-7 and a huge block by senior Sara Malterer gave Lutheran St. Charles its first lead of the second set, 8-7. 

A back and forth battle with several long rallies lasted through the majority of the second set. Warrenton senior outside hitter Sabrina McRoberts had the hot hand in the set, with six kills, including a huge shot down the line to cut a Lady Cougar lead down to 17-16.

“We have a couple of really strong servers and when we have those servers out we want to make sure that they are serving as long as they can,” McDowell said. “When we have hitters that are hot one night we want to make sure we have them in the front row as long as we can, so we want to make sure we keep up those rallies.”

Strong Warrenton serving also kept the match close. Dickey had a pair of aces and setter Ashtyn Dixon kept the game close with an ace to make the score 22-19.

Eventually, Lutheran St. Charles took control and secured the win after rattling off three straight points for the win. 

In the first set, it was all Lutheran St. Charles. The Lady Warriors didn’t have an answer for Vogt’s power. She had nine kills in the opening set.

For Warrenton, McRoberts had eight kills on the day. Dickey and sophomore Amber Glazebrook had eight digs each. Dixon and senior setter Allison May had six assists apiece.

The Warriors finished the year at 18-13-2.

Five seniors played their final matches for the Lady Warriors — Alex Buechner, Emma Gibbs, Anna Hargrove, Allison Hillemeyer and May.

“This is my second year with all the seniors,” McDowell said. “They were a really good group all around. They were really coachable girls, really positive and really good teamwork. It’s been great to work with them the past two years and I look forward to watching as some of them continue their careers.”