The Saint Jo Lady Panthers fell to Blum in the regional tournament finals on Saturday, ending their season one match short of qualifying for the state tournament.
The Lady Panthers lost in straight sets, but first got through Miller Grove on Friday.
Saint Jo came into the tournament making its third appearance in five seasons.
The first time in 2018, the Lady Panthers beat Blum in a five-set thriller before losing to Bryson in the regional final game in straight sets. Two years later in 2020, there was no tournament setting due to COVID-19. Saint Jo played Dodd City and wound up losing in four sets.
The Lady Panthers came into Friday’s game confident, but some power issues in their locker room at the old Billingsley Field House in Fort Worth almost proved to be a distraction.
Still, when the match started the Lady Panthers were locked in though there were some mistakes. Saint Jo’s narrative all season is despite its on court success, the team’s youth featuring eight underclassmen might lead it to fold as stakes got higher.
Saint Jo won in straight sets against the Lady Hornets with set scores being 25-18, 25-17 and 25-16.
Kayden Skidmore led the team with nine kills, four service aces and was second with five assists. Aubrey Morman was second with five kills and five assists. Maxey Johnson had a team high 11 assists.
On defense libero Taylor Patrick led the team with 16 digs. At the net, Morman had eight blocks and Cara Vogel had three.
Coach Kelly Skidmore thought the team handled itself well in the first match.
“We got a little flustered at times, but were really more composed than I was thinking we might be because of our youth and the first time for all of these girls to be at this big stage together,” Skidmore said.
The next day saw everyone from Saint Jo come out and support the team since the fan base was divided in the previous game due to the football team playing its playoff game at the same time.
Blum is one of those programs that is routinely ranked among the top in the state in 1A every year. The team was coming off of getting second in state last year despite having a relatively young roster as well.
The Lady Cats showed it to Saint Jo on Saturday. The first set saw Blum’s small 8-7 lead grow to 12-8 before it steadily grew throughout the rest of the set. There was no turnaround for the Lady Panthers in the set as they fell 25-18.
The second set saw Saint Jo start off better, but the score was tied at 10-10 and later Blum’s lead was only 16-14. The Lady Cats then went on a big run to end the set, winning nine of the last 12 points to win 25-17.
There was not a lot of hope on the Lady Panthers side as the big hitters from Blum were proving to be too much. As the Lady Cats went up early 5-0, the writing was on the wall as the rest of the set and match moved to its logical conclusion.
Blum won the set 25-8 to win the match 3-0.
Morman led the team with four kills and two blocks. Skidmore had a team high six assists and was second with Maxey Johnson with two kills each. Patrick collected 16 digs and Aliyah Vasquez had two service aces to lead to the team.

To read the full story, pick up a copy of the mid-week edition of the Bowie News.