'Aggressive' Dexter seeks SCAA VB sweep against rival Hornets

Dexter High School senior setter Cali White (14) makes a pass to senior outside hitter Kduate Nichols in Thursday's semifinal match with Bell City during the Stoddard County Athletic Association Tournament at Woodland High School in Marble Hill.

Tom Davis ~ Tdavis@semoball.com

MARBLE HILL – The Dexter High School volleyball squad snapped a two-year reign by its counterpart at Advance High School earlier this season by claiming the Stoddard County Athletic Association title.

The league tournament title is on the line tonight, and the Bearcats have flipped the script and are the favored team in the championship match with the Hornets.

“They are hungry for the championship, too,” veteran Advance coach Erin Hoffman said of the Bearcats. “When you have aggressive girls that you know want to win, hopefully, it will end up being a great match.”

The two teams will meet at Woodland High School at 8:30 p.m. The title match follows a third-place match between Woodland and Bell City at 5:30 p.m.

Dexter (21-3-1) is in the midst of a spectacular season and has won five consecutive matches, the latest being a 25-20, 22-25, 25-11, 25-20 win over the Cubs (16-10-2) in Thursday’s semifinal round.

“We have a very young team,” Bell City coach Lori Meyer said.

Bell City was utilizing “two freshmen, two sophomores, a senior, and a couple of juniors” against Dexter, but were very competitive, nonetheless.

“Only our sophomore (hitter Gwen Bowling and Mollie Mannon were the sophomores) has any varsity experience,” Meyer continued.

In the opening set, Bell City fell behind 19-14 before fighting back to pull within 21-18.

That momentum carried over into the second set as Meyer’s team took leads of 10-6 and eventually 21-16 before closing out the set.

“We’re still making too many mistakes,” Meyer said, “but we’re trying to get them to stay aggressive.”

Dexter got past Advance (18-9-2) in Advance earlier this month by a 3-1 margin.

“Dexter is aggressive,” Hoffman said. “They have a lot of aggressive girls.”

That victory by the Bearcats snapped a 13-game league win streak by Hoffman’s program, which has just one senior (outside hitter Addi Carlton).

“We’ve been wanting that one for a few years now, so it feels really nice to finally win,” Dexter middle hitter Mauriona Menley told Semoball.com following that win.

The No. 1-seed Bearcats reached this point of the tournament by beating Richland (Essex) 3-0 before Thursday’s win over the No. 5-seed Cubs.

Advance is the No. 2 seed and beat No. 7-seed Puxico 3-0 in its tournament opener, before battling Woodland 25-22, 25-19, 25-16 in Thursday’s semifinal.

“All of (our players) have had major growth,” Hoffman said of this season. “Even (Carlton), because we did have a very verbally dominant, aggressive group that graduated.”

The Hornets graduated Meg Garner, Abby Kennedy, Kaylee Cline, and Lexi Hoffman from last year’s MSHSAA Class 1 state championship team.