Oct 5, 2017 By Adam Brewer for The 3 min read

JEFFERSON — Carmichaels jumped out to an early 9-0 lead in the opening set and never looked back in sweeping Jefferson-Morgan, 3-0, in their Section 2-A girls volleyball match Thursday night.

The Lady Mikes (7-3, 7-3) won by scores of 25-6, 25-18 and 25-14.

After starting the season with four straight wins, Carmichaels dropped three of its next four before beating West Greene on Tuesday. The Lady Mikes are still in the mix for a section title with the likes of Frazier, Geibel Catholic and California.

“We’ve been dealing with a lot of emotions these last couple of weeks,” Carmichaels coach Ashley Shoemaker said. “As a team, we had a discussion in practice the other day about how to manage that emotion and the right way to play with emotion.”

The Lady Rockets (1-11, 1-9) continued to show their inconsistencies on the court, as they got swept for the ninth time this season.

“We struggled with serve-receive and were just out of sync,” J-M coach Stephanie Woodruff said. “We couldn’t run any offense and whenever we did get points, we had a string of errors that really hurt our confidence. We consistently make those same errors and we just can’t overcome it.”

The visitors started the opening set with nine unanswered points. Aubree Ferek collected several service points in the spree, while Kristina Aeschbacher and Meighan Spishock were displaying their height at the net with several kills.

After J-M trimmed the deficit to 11-4, courtesy of some service points from Brynn Boyd and a kill from Madison VanDivner, Carmichaels ended the set on a 14-2 run.

Aeschbacher, Spishock and Ferek were once again catalysts for the Lady Mikes up front.

“That was one of our better sets of the season,” Shoemaker said. “We came out with a lot of energy and fire. Our focus level was there because Jefferson is our fiercest rival. We played as one unit.”

Things were more back-and-forth in the second set, as the squads traded rallies before the Lady Rockets went up 16-13 after a service point from Caitlyn Dugan.

The Lady Mikes responded with nine consecutive points and tallied the final two points of the set, courtesy of a kill from Ferek and a block from Aeschbacher.

In the third set, J-M held a 5-0 lead on the strength of service points from Boyd, but once again Carmichaels answered with nine straight points.

The Lady Mikes broke away from a 12-10 lead with five unanswered points and tallied five of the final eight points of the night for their fourth sweep of the season.

Grace Kerr and Jadyn Barnish led the offense with 16 and 13 assists, respectfully.

“I think both Grace and Jadyn are excellent setters for us,” Shoemaker said. “They are both very smart and have a high volleyball IQ. They know who to get the ball to and who’s hot on that night. They communicate well and make a lot of smart decisions.”

Ferek finished with an all-around solid game with 10 service points, eight kills and eight digs, while Spishock chipped in with 13 service points, nine kills and seven digs.

Aeschbacher ended her night with five kills and five blocks, while Madison Pratt (five kills) and Micaela Ricco (11 service points) had steady nights for Carmichaels.

J-M was led by Boyd (nine service points), Dugan (10 digs, five service points), Carrington Teasdale (13 digs), Autumn Gustovich (eight digs, three kills) and Payton Wright (three blocks).