By Andrew Cato, ShowMe Times Sports Editor

BLOOMFIELD -- The Lady ‘Cats, coming off their first losses of the season in the SEMO Spike Tournament last weekend, continued to struggle on the court against the Bloomfield Wildcats on Monday night.

The Lady ‘Cats split the contest with Bloomfield; the JV squad won in straight sets, 25-16, 25-16. The Varsity ‘Cats lost the first set 21-25, and forced extra points in the second set, losing 25-27.

Head coach Lauren Hutchcraft felt her team wasn’t mentally prepared for the game and noted a lack of aggression from her hitters.

“We had people in the net, people missing serves, and that’s going to cost you a game - those are easy points you just give the other team,” Hutchcraft said after the game. “You have to hit against them, they’re going to pick it up, as good as their defense is.”

“I don’t really feel like we played well, we didn’t seem fired up at all,” she continued. “It seemed really slow for both teams. We were really quiet, we weren’t hitting the ball, we were tipping where we should have been hitting a lot more.”

Senior libero Erika Mouser had a solid defensive performance for the Lady ‘Cats, racking up 11 digs in the contest. Hannah Noe also played a solid game, with 9 assists, 8 digs, 4 kills, and 2 aces in the match.

The Lady ‘Cats, now 7-4 on the season, will be in action again Tuesday night, when they face the Scott City Lady Rams at the Bearcat Event Center.

“Scott City is a great team, probably one of the best teams we face, and we’ll have to play a lot better than we did tonight to be able to beat them,” Hutchcraft said. “Hopefully the loss tonight, coupled with the hometown crowd, will get my girls fired up and ready to play!”

JV action is scheduled to begin at 6:00 p.m., with the Varsity game immediately following.