Aggression on offense was the critical component for the Cape Central volleyball team on Thursday. The Tigers were able to disrupt any momentum that New Madrid County Central was trying to gain, in its straight-set, road victory. Cape Central won the first set 25-16, and only allowed 10 points in the second set, to secure its eighth win of the season. Head coach Sara Henry said that even though her team won decisively, she felt that they started off the match sluggish. “We started off a little bit quiet,” Cape Central head coach Sara Henry said. ‘Kind of going through the motions, but still making good decisions. So, it worked out for us first set, second set, we figured it out and they were going for it hard.” Going into the match, NMCC (9-10-1) did not know what to expect from this Cape Central team. After the match, though, NMCC head coach Whitney Gorton said that the Tigers came out aggressively, and shell-shocked her team. Led by Ella Vogel, the Tigers made it very difficult for the Eagles to get into their offensive sets. “Tonight, I feel like the kids maybe were slightly intimidated,” NMCC head coach Whitney Gorton said. “This is probably the hardest hitting team I think we’ve played all year. They really surprised us. Biggest critique, for me, for my girls is just to move around with them. We didn’t move around with their hitters as I wish we would have and then our defense said they were having a hard time finding the ball. You know, if the blockers were leaving it open, she was playing with it and going whichever direction she wanted. So, just hopefully, you know, picking up on that and playing harder on the net. I don’t think we played as hard on the net as we should have.” Offensively, Gorton said that her team was always playing defense and trying to make it harder for Cape Central (8-6-1). She added that that was the reason why the production was seemingly low for her team. As for the other side of the ball, playing at a faster tempo and making more effective passes is what Gorton said that her team would need to work on defensively. “Passing, passing on defense honestly,” Gorton said. “I feel like the whole game; we were on defense. So, just working on making a nice pass or a dig off that hard hit because, again, that girls the hardest hitter we’ve been up against this year. I think, for them, it was something new, and they’re like “Oh, it’s coming a little harder at me tonight,” but just making sure we get the good passes. The setting, we’ve been struggling with keeping a faster tempo on our offense. Tonight, we were setting the ball to the ceiling, so that allowed their blockers to get to wherever they needed to go to block us and then we had no chance. So, the setting, we’ve got to get the setting going, faster tempo to pick it up to get around those big, old blockers that we’re going to see.”