Dexter volleyball team edges Perryville in Class 3 District 1 semifinal

The Dexter volleyball team has put together its fair share of comebacks in the 2015 season and delivered again in a Class 3 District 1 semifinal against Perryville on Monday.

Dexter overcame a 20-15 first-set deficit, fought off a set point when trailing 24-23, and eventually secured a 27-25 victory. Dexter never trailed the second set as it jumped out to an 18-10 lead and hung on for a 25-18 win.

"That was huge," Dexter coach Carmen Morgan said, referring to her team's first-set rally. "That's what this team has been able to do a lot this year. They come back and keep coming after their opponent. I couldn't tell you what happened at key points, but everybody started doing their job. We started passing the ball, and then our offense got going. Until then, we weren't making passes."

Dexter is slated to play Notre Dame at 6 p.m. today for the title. Top-seeded Notre Dame beat fourth-seeded Fredericktown 25-14, 25-8 in the other semifinal.

Perryville led 6-2 in the first set before Dexter rallied to move ahead 12-10. Perryville followed with an 8-1 run to take an 18-13 lead. The Pirates led by five again at 20-15 after a kill by Ahnie Hoff.

The Bearcats cut the deficit to 22-20 on a kill by Krysten Garrison and forced Perryville to burn a timeout. Perryville took the first point after the timeout on a kill by Hannah Layton for a 23-20 lead. Dexter took the next three points to tie things up at 23-23 on a pair of Perryville attack errors and a kill by Garrison.

Layton followed with a kill to give the Pirates their final lead at 24-23. Dexter earned its first set point when it moved ahead 25-24 on a kill by Garrison and block by Hannah Thurmon. A kill by Perryville middle hitter Macie Hotop tied things up at 25-25.

Thurmon followed with a kill to put Dexter on top 26-25, and the first set ended shortly after when Perryville could not return a serve off the hand of Julia Hahn.

"We came real close," Perryville coach David Mirly said. "We gave it our 'A' game that first set. Dexter is just really good. They made it really hard for us. There were several times where I thought we had the point scored and they found a way to keep the ball alive. Credit them for continuing to make plays, but I'm proud of the way our girls battle the first set and the whole night."

Dexter took an 8-4 lead in the second set. The Pirates cut the deficit to 12-10, but Dexter followed with the next six points to take its largest lead of the match at 18-10.

"We wanted to come out strong the second set," Morgan said. "We got out to a lead, but they came right back. They mixed it up on us a lot and forced us to move our defense in."

The Pirates scored six of the next seven points to trim Dexter's lead to 19-16, but the Bearcats took the next three points to go ahead 22-16 and led by at least five the rest of the way.

"Against Dexter that's a pretty big deficit," Mirly said of falling behind 18-10. "But we were down 13-4 against Duchesne, who is ranked in the top six in the state, and came back to win that one. We were down 23-19 against Jackson and came back to win. These girls don't have the words 'quit' or 'give up' in their vocabulary. They keep fighting and finding ways. So I knew we still had a chance and they would find a way to make a comeback. Dexter was just too good to let them have the second set."

Thurmon was a constant pest for the Pirates at the net as she finished with a team-high four blocks and also recorded seven kills.

"Hannah has given people a lot of problems this year," Morgan said. "Hannah has very long arms and very long legs, and there is nothing better for an athlete. She can go over the top of people. You have to block and she will still reach up and go over the top of you. She has continued to improve the entire season."

Garrison recorded a team-high 13 kills, a team-high 15 assists, five digs and two blocks.

Bailee Williams had 12 assists, Brittany Brown had 12 digs and Lexi Barnes had six kills for Dexter.

"Everyone came through with big hits for us," Morgan said. "Lexie Barnes had some big hits for us and Addie Kruse hit some down the line right when we needed them. What makes this team as good as they are is everyone can do their job. Brittany Brown dug up a lot of balls defensively and so did some of the others. We just came out and played hard and played to win."

Layton and Hotop had seven kills each for the Pirates. Hoff added five more kills.

Perryville finishes the 2015 season with a record of 22-12-3. It graduates Hoff, Brooke Hogard, Kayla Buxton and Paige Lewis.

"I'm so proud of them," Mirly said. "They left another great legacy behind for Perryville volleyball. They again raised the bar exceptionally high. I told them after the game, 'We've raised the bar so high that there is only one way for it to end right, and that's to walk away from Cape Girardeau with a state championship. Unless you win a state championship, it ends too soon, but that's just what we've built and we are very proud of that.'"

Notre Dame 25 25, Fredericktown 14 8

Abbie McAlister recorded 15 kills and Sam Feeney broke her own single-season assist record in the Bulldogs' win over the Black Cats.

Feeney accumulated 25 assists Monday in surpassing her previous single-season total of 679.

Lexi Welter and Marianna Below both had nine digs for the Bulldogs.

Notre Dame is 1-2 in its three meetings against Dexter this season. Dexter won in three sets in the semifinals of the Notre Dame VolleyballFest, while the Bulldogs gained revenge with a two-set sweep in the championship game of the SEMO Tournament. Dexter won the third meeting in two sets last week.

"It's probably going to be a battle," Notre Dame coach Tara Stroup said.

Dexter is coming off a tougher semifinal win.

"This is the fourth time we've seen Notre Dame," Morgan said. "We will have to be ready. Our philosophy is they know what we do and we know what they do. We are just going to have to play hard, play to win and we will see what happens. I have no philosophy about it right now. We've just got to do what we do."