Bell City nabs first title from Classic

~ The Cubs exceeded Hoffman's expectations in the 19th annual event.

Bell City coach Erin Hoffman entered the B.A. Sports Volleyball Classic without much expectations for her struggling team.

So Hoffman was more than a little surprised when the Cubs found themselves the last of the 40 teams standing Saturday at the Show Me Center, outlasting Bismarck 18-25, 25-22, 25-16 in the championship match for their first title in the 19th annual tournament.

"I'm very proud of them," Hoffman said. "I didn't think we'd make it to the gold bracket because we played so bad this week."

The Cubs, who finished third in the Class 1 state tournament last year, beat Zalma, Advance and Bernie this week before entering the tournament. But the team was not playing to its caliber, according to Hoffman.

After advancing undefeated through a pool that included defending district champion Gideon, the Cubs cruised into the semifinals with wins over Perryville and Dexter.

Bell City handed St. Vincent its first loss of the season with a sweep in the semifinals and then turned its attention to Bismarck. Bismarck had made its way to the finals with a sweep of Bernie.

"They worked rally hard for this," Hoffman said. "They didn't let up one time. You always have a struggle with intensity or excitement, but I didn't have to talk to them about that all day."

While the Cubs continued to work hard on the court, they found Bismarck's play hard to read in the early going. Bismarck fought off an early back-and-forth rhythm in the first game and took control for a relatively easy win.

Bismarck then led much of the second game before the Cubs took their first lead 13-12. Neither team led by more than two points the rest of the game. Jessica Abner put Bell City up 23-22 with a kill, and a Bismarck hitting error ended the game.

In the deciding game, Bell City led by as many as 11 points and was never threatened.

"You play such a variety of teams in this tournament that when you get to the upper levels, it takes us a while to figure out what a team is like and what they do before we can adjust," Hoffman said.

"It took them a while to figure out where they hit the ball, or where the holes were. They're pretty smart kids. They're not just athletes."

Rachel Spears and Jenny Lathum led the Cubs with 11 kills apiece in the championship match. Abner added nine kills, and Codie Lancaster finished with 38 assists.

Bell City fell in the semifinals to eventual champion Farmington last year before going on to finish third in the state tournament.

"We still have a whole lot of stuff to work on," Hoffman said. "Our biggest hurdle is to get over this win and just keep working as hard for everything else. It was like we hit our peak here [last year]. Hopefully that doesn't happen this year."

Bell City will host Poplar Bluff on Tuesday in its next match.

In the silver bracket, Woodland defeated Central 25-18, 25-19 for the championship.