A healthy (finally) Bloomfield VB squad is showing potential

Bloomfield sophomore volleyball player, Maggie Wright (18), gets a dig over teammate, senior Mattison Pennington, against Sikeston on Monday at the Sikeston Field House.

Tom Davis ~ Tdavis@semoball.com

SIKESTON – Second-year Bloomfield High School volleyball coach Hannah Dement would appreciate having some sense of normalcy to coaching the Wildcats. However, after enduring two seasons that have been engulfed by a global pandemic, she’ll take what she can get when it comes to normalcy.

Bloomfield (4-8) beat Sikeston 18-25, 25-13, 25-19, 25-18 on Monday and the victory showed the potential that Dement’s squad possesses.

“(The players) get super excited to play,” Dement said. “It took us the first set to kind of get it under our belt a little bit. But the second, third, and fourth sets they really fought, and they pushed for every single point.

“I’m super proud of them.”

Monday’s game was the 12th of the season for Dement’s team, but it was the first that the entire roster has been available due to absences related to Covid. That has caused the roles and rotations to be a tad chaotic for the Wildcat student-athletes.

“At one point,” Dement said, “I was missing four varsity hitters.”

Bloomfield has now won two of its last three matches and has a chance for another win on Thursday when it hosts Malden (4-9-2) at 6:30 p.m.

The Wildcat roster has a good dose of experience (six seniors) and some great potential in its youth.

Sophomores Maggie Wright and Chelsey Chism both started Monday and played well. Chism brings a presence at the net with her 6-foot-1 frame.

Senior Ashlynn Hudgens-Sills started multiple Wildcat runs with her serving, while senior Molly Below helped Chism with spikes at the net.

“My girls were playing positions that they have never played before,” Dement said of earlier matches. “Finally, tonight, they were back in their normal positions, so I am just hoping to build on that.”

Those seniors know what it takes to succeed, aside from having a full roster of players.

From 2010 to 2019, the Wildcats won eight MSHSAA District championships, including a trip to the Final Four in 2014.

A year ago, Bloomfield fell 3-2 in the Class 2 District 2 championship game to an 18-win Woodland squad. If the Wildcats can remain healthy, Dement sees potential in her team to advance in the postseason.

“This year,” Dement said, “with Covid, there was some tension on the team because they weren’t playing in their normal positions. I feel like the more we work, and the more we drill it in them, that this is a game, and you have to enjoy it to play it.

“I feel like we are starting to get there and if they continue to work, they are going to get where they need to be. They have the drive, and they have the talent, now they just need to get there. You have to get the right mindset.”