By Kyle Roberts
RUSTON — Freshman outside hitter Josie Cauley put down 12 kills and freshman outside hitter Lily Bissell added 11 more with three aces Tuesday night as Ruston High swept West Ouachita 25-16, 25-9, 25-15 in its first home match of the season.
The Lady Bearcats never trailed by more than a point, finished with 43 kills, seven aces and five blocks, and closed the match with a set they led from the first serve.
Ruston head coach Mandy Cauley said the only trouble came at the front of the night.
“We had a phenomenal warmup, and then we just made a couple of controllable errors on the first six points that made the game feel tighter than it really was,” Mandy Cauley said. “And then we started doing what we know how to do, and we were able to execute and play our style of ball and our level of play. I was really proud of that end result in all three sets.”
Ruston opened the match with back-to-back blocks — senior middle hitter Ava Crowe and senior setter Baylor Cauley on the first, Crowe and Josie Cauley on the second — but West Ouachita answered with six ties and three lead changes over the next dozen points. Ruston pulled ahead 13-7 behind three kills from junior setter Bridget Crittenden, then went five points without scoring as West Ouachita drew even at 13-12 and again at 14-14.
From there the Bearcats scored nine in a row. Baylor Cauley and senior middle hitter Jane Ramsey combined on two blocks in the run, Josie Cauley put down three kills, senior outside hitter Brooklynn Bissell ended it with an ace, and West Ouachita called timeout trailing 20-14. Ramsey closed the set with a kill.
The second set was the shortest of the night. Ruston scored eight straight to lead 11-2, forced a West Ouachita timeout at 9-2 and closed it out 25-9, with Lily Bissell accounting for six kills in the set and Brooklynn Bissell serving two of her four aces.
Ruston opened the third on a 4-0 run and never trailed, leading by as many as 12 before West Ouachita scored three in a row late. Junior middle hitter Addie Powell and Lily Bissell combined on a block at 13-6, and Lily Bissell added an ace at 15-7.
Mandy Cauley said the freshmen have not played like freshmen.
“Our freshmen aren’t like most freshmen,” she said. “They’ve been committed to the sport and to their progress for a long time. And they get out here and they play with confidence and they don’t look like freshmen.”
Lily Bissell’s night ran through the service line as much as the front row.
“I felt like Lily was everywhere tonight — back row attacking, serving,” Mandy Cauley said. “We were scoring points with her at the service line. So it’s a testament to what she’s doing, a testament to the front row protecting the court, so to speak.”
The margin let Ruston empty its bench. Mandy Cauley said she substituted heavily across positions and moved a player up for her first varsity repetitions.
“I made a lot of subs today in a lot of different positions and want to build everybody’s confidence and try to utilize everyone, and they handled all those substitutions really well,” Cauley said. “We’ve got options and we have depth.”
Ruston’s passing, Mandy Cauley said, is where the ‘Cats spent most of the offseason placing their focus.
“Our passing game has improved tremendously,” she said. “We worked really hard on it in the offseason, really worked on learning to pass with a little bit of a different style, which is getting out of midline, staying disciplined. And our passers put in the work, and they’re so good.”
She singled out junior defensive specialist Ava Madden, who served an ace, along with Crowe and junior libero Linzie Williams.
“Those defenders, they don’t want anything to touch the floor, and they’re going to lay out and try to get it up, even if it’s not pretty,” Mandy Cauley said. “And I told them, I don’t care about pretty defense. I want gritty defense. I want y’all to protect the court.”
Baylor Cauley led Ruston with 23 assists and three block credits while adding three kills. Crowe and Ramsey had four kills apiece and two blocks each. The Lady Bearcats return to action Thursday at home against Madison-Ridgeland Academy (Miss.).
