After losing the first set Tuesday night, North Callaway wasn’t the same.

North Callaway vs Linn Photo Gallery

The Ladybirds’ season ended after being swept by Linn (25-22, 25-10 and 25-11) in the first round of the Class 2 District 6 tournament in New Bloomfield, wrapping up their year with a school-record 14 wins. In what was North Callaway’s third loss to Linn this season and second straight district loss to the Lady Wildcats, the Ladybirds had 13 service aces piled on them.

Head coach Andrew Klein said it ultimately came down to the conclusion of the first set. North Callaway (14-14-2) led for a majority of the set, leading 15-10 at one point. Even though Linn (21-6-2) used a 7-1 run to tie the game at 18, Bailey Hill put down back-to-back blocks to give the Ladybirds the momentum that was ripped away.

“Volleyball is such a momentum game,” Klein said. “Unfortunately, Linn took the momentum away from us and took the winds out of our sails in that first set. The night goes a little bit differently if we won that first set.”

North Callaway was familiar with its opponent as it is the same opponent that gave them two losses this season, winning five out of a six sets. The Ladybirds were eliminated in districts last season by Linn.

Avis Endres finished with three kills for North Callaway, but the team didn’t have much more than that. Linn won the final seven points of the first set, being persistent as took point after point. One example, even though it was in the second set, a Lady Wildcat dove into her bench to save a ball while making contact with a coach, which not only led to Linn returning the ball but also winning the point.

“Linn just made more plays,” Klein said. “I call them the 50-50 balls or the ones that are a coin flip of whether we are going to win the point or not. They won a lot of those tonight like they won in the first two times they played us.”

The Lady Wildcats only had two service aces in the first set but ramped up their total in the next two sets. Klein said he was aware of how well they could serve the ball and that fed into the North Callaway’s  overall game plan.

“It was focusing on what we could do and what we could do well,” Klein said. “Serving and serve receiving, we spent a lot of time this past week on it. We were just worrying about us rather than what we can do to limit them. We understand they’ve got some good players, and they’ve got a lot of people they can go to.”

Linn had too much confidence to throw at North Callaway after taking the first set, but Hill was too much for the Lady Wildcats at times. The 6-foot-2 senior was too much of a towering presence at the net that Linn couldn’t ignore.

A season ago, Linn was able to ignore Hill simply because she was out all last season due to a leg injury she sustained in the preseason. As she made her comeback, her coach and weights teacher Klein said Hill made the most of her tall frame to help North Callaway make the most of this season.

“Bailey has been working hard on her game and getting healthy and building strength,” Klein said. “There’s not a day that goes by that she’s not working her butt off. It shows out here being a little bit quicker, and her vertical has gotten a little bit better. That helps you get blocks.”

Hill was part of a senior group along with Endres, Lakyn Hartley, Carlie Clark, Natalie Shryock and Jaden Smithee. When they were all freshmen, North Callaway won four games to continue an eight-year run of single-digit wins since the program started. The wins then reached the double digits until the Ladybirds secured its first non-losing season in history.

The winning percentage has grown every season over the past five seasons to a school-record 46.7 percent this year. Klein said every one of the seniors have been with the program all that time, except for Andres who transferred in as a sophomore, and all of them are a big reason why the program is in such good shape.

“Hopefully, they understand that they’re legacy is going to live on,” Klein said. “We’ve got some young girls who get a lot of playing time on varsity that expect to be good next year and be even better. I’m really proud of the girls.”

Among those returning players are Rylee Horstman, Alex Craighead and libero Peyton Boulware. Each received much varsity playing time and had factored into Tuesday’s loss along with others. One of the team’s main attackers Horstman had some kills, Craighead had some blocks as she expects to take up blocking duties again, Boulware dove all around the court to save balls, and Lauren Pezold had two service aces.

Klein said he knows the girls were disappointed after how their final match this season played out and also because that means North Callaway is still looking for its first ever district victory. However, he said they should also feel proud of how the season and their careers played out.

“I don’t know that they’re quite going to understand that now,” Klein said about the significance of the school-record victories. “When they look back on it, they’re going to be like, ‘Wow, we did something. We left a legacy at North Callaway and a standard that they’re not going to be a bad team anymore and are going to be a program that people have to respect.’ In the past, I’m not sure it was that way.”