Bell City's Johnson overpowers Leopold in Class 1 volleyball sectional

STEELE, Mo. -- It didn't matter if she was in the front row or the back. The middle, the outside or somewhere in between, Leopold could not stop Bell City's Jasmine Johnson on Saturday.

The Cubs relentlessly fed the ball to their all-state junior middle and she relentlessly pounded the ball around, over and through Leopold's block to lead her team to a 25-18, 23-25, 25-15 Class 1 sectional win at South Pemiscot High School.

A wide smile spread across Johnson's face and she quickly responded "Yeah" when asked if she had felt especially good on offense against the Wildcat before her humility and apparently a perfectionist nature showed through.

"I think I did pretty good in that game," Johnson said. "I mean, it could have been better."

It's hard to imagine how.

Johnson recorded an eye-popping 26 kills in the match, 13 of which came in a dominating Game 1.

"We knew they were going to set her," Leopold senior middle Abby Landewee said. "We knew they were going to set her all the way around."

The Wildcats were unable to force Bell City to change that plan Saturday. While the Cubs executed on offense and continued to find ways to get the ball to Johnson and their second best offensive threat in senior Alexandra Eakin, Leopold struggled to find its best attackers.

"They're really good," Johnson said of Leopold. "In order to beat them we had to stop their middles mostly and attack the weakest defensive players and the people in the back row."

Johnson said the key to doing that was to keep swinging.

"Just keep attacking them and attacking them so they don't get the ball over and hit at us," she said.

Landewee finished with 11 kills for Leopold while her opposite Mallory James finished with eight kills. But the stalwarts of the of Wildcats' offense where left out for long stretches of the match due to a combination of poor passing and setting.

"When we've got Mallory and Abby as our hitting, they have to be fed the ball," Leopold coach Sandy Davis said. "I think passing sometimes was on, but you've got to get it to your dominant hitters."

A puzzled and disappointed Davis found herself caught between complimenting Bell City for its superior play, commending her players for a great season and trying to find an explanation for her team's passive play.

"I don't know," Davis said. "They just came out and -- I don't know -- they played very tense. They played scared.

"Bell City," she said, cutting off another thought. "Nothing was falling and Johnson -- you can't really stop her. She's just dominant."

She lamented the ease with which Bell City was able to keep setting Johnson.

"Well when you're playing aggressively, they don't so that," Davis said. "But when you just kind of give the ball to them, they're going to give the ball to her. That's where our girls weren't playing as aggressive as we have been. They were making mistakes, but Bell City played good."

Leopold swept Bell City in a best-of-five match earlier this season.

"A lot of the season I feel like we were just going through the motions," Bell City coach Erin Hoffman said. "But starting in districts, we decided that if we wanted anything we were going to have to go after it, and we did a really good job in the Leopold game trying to take charge from the beginning instead of waiting on the other team. We wanted to come out strong."

Leopold lead 11-9 in Game 1 before sophomore Cassidy Green's serving led the Cubs on a 9-0 run to take a commanding lead. Then with the scored tied 14-14 in Game 3, Bell City went on another 9-0 run to all but secure the win.

"I saw their faces drop a little bit, but when they started to come out they were kind of down, too," Johnson said. "I don't know if they were scared of us or if they were just really nervous."

Bell City advanced to face Valle Catholic in the state quarterfinals with the win.