Advance, Bell City reach title match

Top-seeded Advance and third-seeded Bell City will meet Saturday for the championship of the Stoddard County Activities Association volleyball tournament.

In Thursday's semifinals, host Advance rolled past fifth-seeded Bloomfield 25-10, 25-14 and Bell City surprised second-seeded Dexter 25-17, 25-12.

Advance (18-5) was led by Dana Williams with 11 kills. Nicole Tropf served seven aces, Alicia Broshuis had six assists and Kaci Cooper added five digs.

Katie Niemczyk had seven kills and nine digs for Bell City (15-7). Andreia Wondel had six kills and eight digs; Emily Burch had six kills; and Sarah Scherer added 10 digs.

In the junior varsity semifinals, fourth-seeded Bell City upset top-seeded Bernie 25-23, 25-21 and third-seeded Dexter knocked off second-seeded Advance 25-12, 25-11.

Advance and Bell City will meet for the varsity championship at 7 p.m. Saturday.

Jackson 25-24-25, Leopold 14-26-16

Jackson held a block party to slip past visiting Leopold. The Indians improved to 17-8-1 and the Wildcats fell to 14-4.

Shay Priester recorded 13 blocks, Malerie Goodman had 12 and Molly Hartmann added nine to lead the Indians.

Also for Jackson, Linden Hahs had 13 service points to go along with 12 digs and six kills.

Perryville 26-25, Herculaneum 24-22

Perryville moved back above the .500 mark with a home victory.

The Pirates (13-12-2) received six kills from Kaci Schremp, four kills from Stacey Landholt and seven assists from Lisa Pecaut.

Oak Ridge 25-25, Oran 7-22

Oak Ridge went above .500 by easing past visiting Oran.

Erin Hahs led the Eagles (11-10) with seven kills and three blocks. Kelcey Schaper had five kills and three blocks; Cassie Ludwig added five kills; and Cheryl Berkbigler had four aces.

Eagle Ridge 25-12-15, New Salem 23-25-9

Rachel Carbaugh had nine kills and five aces to lead Eagle Ridge Christian School of Cape Girardeau past host New Salem Baptist Academy of Marble Hill.

Autumn Crowden added seven kills and four service points for Eagle Ridge.

SOFTBALL

Districts postponed

Rain postponed the district playoffs scheduled for Thursday. Area teams Delta and Jackson were the two teams scheduled to play Thursday. Delta will play at 3 p.m. today in the Class 1 district in Thayer, with the championship game moved to Saturday. The Class 3 tournament at Windsor involving Notre Dame, will start today at 3:30 p.m. Notre Dame's game, which was scheduled for 3:30, will be pushed back and immediately follow the 3:30 game.

EIGHTH-GRADE FOOTBALL

Central beats NMCC

Central quarterback Garrett Stevens threw six touchdown passes in a 39-22 victory over New Madrid County Central on Wednesday.

Stevens completed 9 of 10 passes for 320 yards and kicked an extra point for Central (2-2).

Joey Uhls pulled in three of the touchdown passes and Darien Downing had two .

-- From staff reports