Cubs bounce back, finish in third place

~ Bell City defeated Winona 15-25, 26-24, 25-20 for its 30th victory.

WARRENSBURG, Mo. -- The Bell City volleyball team won the Class 1 state championship two years ago after losing the first game in their title match against Lockwood and falling behind in the second game.

The Cubs decided on the same formula Saturday at the 2005 Class 1 third-place game, and the result was the same.

Bell City came back to defeat Winona 15-25, 26-24, 25-20 at Central Missouri State University.

"I was sitting there on the bench thinking of how we won two years ago and how similar it was today," Cubs coach Erin Hoffman said. "We were awful in the first game two years ago and again today. We fell behind by five points in the second game two years ago and had a similar deficit today. But I was proud of the way the girls stepped up and pushed through just like the championship team."

Bell City squad struggled in the pool-play portion of the tournament, winning just one of its six games and finishing fourth among the four Class 1 teams.

That sent the Cubs into the third-place game against Winona, which was third in pool play and was the only victim for Bell City on Friday.

Things did not look promising for Bell City early in the third-place matchup. Winona's 6-foot-2 freshman, Molly McAfee, dominated the early stages of the match, and Winona scored 11 consecutive points to take a 24-13 lead.

"We're not used to playing girls that tall," Bell City junior Rachel Spears said.

McAfee finished with 18 kills.

But Spears spearheaded Bell City's comeback. Winona had an early 6-3 lead in the second game when Spears blocked a kill attempt by McAfee, giving the Cubs some momentum. Winona still led 22-21 when Spears had back-to-back blocks and a kill after a long rally to give Bell City a 24-22 lead.

Winona tied the game but then had a couple of errors, one a service error by Ashley Strazdas on game point.

The Cubs trailed 8-3 early in the third game. But they had a string of seven straight points to erase a 10-7 deficit. Bell City never trailed the rest of the match.

"Winning this match was very important after yesterday," said Spears, who led the Cubs with 13 kills. "The teams we played were very good, but there is no reason we played as poorly as we did. Bell City has had some good teams in the past, including two years ago when they won it all. We wanted to prove ourselves today."

The Cubs did so, bringing their record to 30-7-2 in the process.

New Haven won the state title.