SCAA VB: Bernie comes together, wins Consol bracket over Bloomfield

The Bernie High School volleyball squad poses with the plaque after winning the Consolation Bracket championship over Bloomfield of the Stoddard County Athletic Association Volleyball Tournament on Thursday at Woodland High School in Marble Hill.

Tom Davis ~ Tdavis@semoball.com

MARBLE HILL – Veteran Bernie High School volleyball coach Rachel Vernon has had to manage her athletes on a possession-by-possession occurrence throughout this season, and that was evident in Thursday’s five-set win over Bloomfield in the Consolation Bracket championship match of the Stoddard County Athletic Association Volleyball Tournament at Woodland High School.

“It’s been up and down,” Vernon said of this season. “It just depends on if we come to the game and we’re ready to play.”

The Mules topped the Wildcats for the second time in a week – both in five sets – and once again, it took Vernon’s team a little bit of time to meet their ability.

Bernie dropped the opening set by a mere two points before fighting back to win the second set.

“We came back better in the second set,” Vernon said. “We had to refocus. We had to figure out how to gel together and play simple volleyball.”

The Mules (15-8-3) will earn their 15thconsecutive winning season this fall, but it has been a journey to get to this point.

Bernie opened the season by winning five of its initial six matches but had to work its way through a stretch in which it didn’t win a match in eight contests.

“We are really working on trying to be more of a team together,” Vernon said, “gelling together. That is something that we have had to stay focused on.

“We have to play as a team and not so much having an I in the team.”

That emphasis has begun to get through to the young Mules. Vernon’s team has won 10 of its last 12 matches.

“We just have to stay on top of it.”

For Bloomfield (14-16-1), it was another frustrating night of playing competitive volleyball, but in a loss.

The No. 6-seed Wildcats opened the tournament by losing to No. 3-seed Woodland 3-0 but bounced back with a victory over Puxico on Wednesday.

“We’ve got to do better,” Bloomfield coach Brasley Conner said of her team’s defense following the match.

The Wildcats have dropped six matches this fall in which they have won one or two sets.

“We have been attacking the ball,” Conner said. “We have really, really hit well this season.”

Conner saw signs of that ability in the off-season and has relied on frontline players including seniors Abbigail Heaton, Kaelynn Conner, and Kamdyn Thomlinson.

Bernie will close its regular season on Monday at Woodland (12-13) before facing Campbell (15-11-4) in the opening round of the MSHSAA Class 1 District 2 Tournament on Oct. 25 at 6:15 p.m. at Clarkton High School.

Bloomfield will open that same night and District Tournament against Risco (14-14-1) at 7:30 p.m.