Lady Royal Tabitha Hackle (13) makes a block on Bloomfield's Taylor Parker. Hackle won this battle, but the Bloomfield Lady Wildcats won the match Tuesday night in Broseley. (Rob Tate/DAR)

By ROB TATE ~ DAR Sports Writer

BROSELEY -- The Bloomfield Lady Wildcats felt after their match Monday night against Puxico exactly how Twin Rivers felt Tuesday night after they played Lady Wildcats.

Monday, the Lady Wildcats led 1-0 over the Lady Indians but dropped the next two games for a 2-1 loss.

Tuesday night, the Lady Royals took the 1-0 lead on the Lady Wildcats, but this time, Bloomfield prevailed with the 2-1 (18-25, 25-20, 25-15) win of its own.

Things looked good for the Lady Wildcats early as if they wiped the previous night's loss off their minds.

Bloomfield (12-8) got out to a commanding 7-1 lead in the first game as co-captain Jessica White served up six straight points including one ace.

Twin Rivers head coach Kelly Null quickly called a timeout to get her girls refocused and it obviously worked because the Lady Royals (9-6-3) responded and made a comeback to knot things up 11-11 with the tying point coming on a Mallory Douglas kill. The teams hovered around each other as they tied at 12-12, but Bloomfield pulled back out to a 16-13 lead.

After an incredible rally that last around what seemed like a minute by both squads that Twin Rivers won, momentum rolled in the Lady Royals way as they closed out Bloomfield on a 9-2 run to win the first game.

Bloomfield head coach Starla Pulley wasn't too pleased with the errors she saw at the start.

"We had 12 hitting errors," Pulley said. "They just can't keep momentum. They start out strong then they fade away. Their defense has really picked up since we played them at Gideon (last weekend). They were moving and getting all the balls."

But actually on this night, the Lady Wildcats did the reverse. They came back solidly and won the final two games.

Twin Rivers got out to a 7-5 lead in the second game, but Bloomfield took control with three straight points to go up 11-8 and they wouldn't relinquish the lead from there.

The third game was all Bloomfield as they cruised on the serving of White late and took a 25-15 win. White served up six straight points including another ace to get the Lady Wildcats out to a 21-12 lead and Bloomfield closed out the game from there.

"Jessica White had a great game serving-wise," Pulley said. "Che' Holford, our libero, did an amazing job with defense and our setters Taylor Pulley and Courtney Pennington did a great job getting to the ball because our passing was a mess. They were running everywhere."

White ended the game with six aces and two kills. Holford had 16 digs in the back for Bloomfield while Pulley added eight assists and Lindsay Levitt had seven assists.

Bloomfield has games this week against Advance and Woodland as they prepare for the county tournament.

As for Twin Rivers, Null and her squad had worked at hitting the ball harder the past few practices.

"Our focus coming into practice yesterday and this morning was hitting it hard and being aggressive with all the balls," Null said. "Even if you have to make a tip, make an aggressive tip because they move their feet really well and make plays. And we did that for a game and a half and then we stopped doing it."

Going down early like they did in the first game is something that keeps happening to Twin Rivers.

"We've done that a handful of times this year," Null said. "They get so pumped when they get out there (at the start of games) they let their moment kind of take over their bodies and they lose control a little bit. I knew we could get back in it."

Being a little pumped caused some service errors the whole game as Twin Rivers gave Bloomfield seven points in that area.

Null's focus is now on some tougher opponents in a make-or-break two weeks as the Lady Royals have tough matches against Oran, Poplar Bluff, Bernie and Puxico on the horizon. The next match is at Oran on Friday night.