Nichols' smooth adjustment boosting hot Bearcats

Dexter High School senior Kate Nichols prepares to serve in a recent match against Sikeston at the Bearcat Event Center in Dexter.

Tom Davis ~ Tdavis@semoball.com

The Dexter High School volleyball squad has been on a tear through this season and earning the No. 2 seed in today’s SEMO Conference Tournament is evidence of that.

The Bearcats enter the tournament on a seven-game win streak and at 14-2-1, second-year coach Haylee Orf’s squad is enjoying its best start since winning 29 games in 2014 and advancing to the MSHSAA Class 3 State Finals.

“These games mean a little bit,” Orf said recently of this stretch of success, “but the end means everything.”

The Bearcats will open play today at 3:45 p.m. against the winner of the No. 7-seed Scott City (8-5-2) and No. 10-seed Sikeston (4-13) match. If Dexter is to have a chance to knock off top-seed Jackson (19-6) in the championship match, it will need another strong outing from senior do-everything player Kate Nichols.

“Kate demands the ball,” Orf said of Nichols’ presence on the court. “She is a great leader. She can pretty much hit the ball outside the pole, in the middle of the court, or wherever you put it.

“She’ll find a way to get it down.”

Dexter recently had a tough 3-2 match at Woodland, and in that tight win, Nichols had 28 kills. But Orf was just as impressed with Nichols’ defense, which has her playing in a new spot on the court this fall.

“With her playing middle back,” Orf explained, “her defense has become incredible from the standpoint of being a setter for a couple of years.”

Dexter VB 'keeping the pedal down' through busy week

Tom Davis

The pace is getting harried for the Dexter High School volleyball squad, as it could play as many as five matches this week in a four-day stretch.

Orf shifted her players around this season and has moved senior libero Avery Riley from middle back to left back, and has Nichols playing the middle back, which is probably her preferred position at the college level.

“We wanted to keep an attacker back there,” Orf said. “We try to get them in the net and dig out (balls) in the net. Kate has been a great second.”

“Second” refers to Nichols’ responsibility for taking that “second out of system ball,” according to Orf. “She has good hands and is able to push it to the front (line).

“She is doing amazing with that. It is working out well for her and I think it is absolutely working out well for our team.”

Dexter’s latest victory was a 3-1 win at defending MSHSAA Class 1 State Champion Advance on Tuesday.

The Hornets (10-5-1, 4-1 Stoddard County Athletic Association) had won 13 consecutive SCAA matches before Dexter (6-0 SCAA) topped them.

“I’m proud of my girls for sticking together and keeping it locked down, minus all the missed serves and silly errors here and there,” Orf told Semoball.com after the win. “I feel like they did a great job of coming together, keeping their heads up and high, and continuing to find the holes on the court.”

The victory gives the Bearcats at least a share of the SCAA regular-season title.

If Dexter gets past Scott City in its opening game today, it will advance to play the top team from No. 6-seed Poplar Bluff (15-9), No. 11-seed Oran (0-10), and No. 3-seed Cape Central (16-4-1).

Dexter got past the Tigers last month 3-0 at the Bearcat Event Center.