Dig For Life volleyball tourney to field 48 teams

Volleyball players and fans from 48 area high schools will converge on Cape Girardeau this weekend to compete in the Dig For Life Challenge beginning today at three venues throughout the city.

Notre Dame is the defending tournament champion after defeating Bernie in the finals last year. And even though the Bulldogs are off to a 6-1-1 start to the season, coach Tara Stroup knows coming away with a second successive title will be anything but a cakewalk.

"We lost six seniors [from last year's team] and all six were key players," Stroup said. "We do have our defensive players back."

With a senior-dominated squad last season, Stroup had the luxury of playing several juniors on the junior varsity, experience which is proving valuable so far this season.

"That was just so they could get a lot of playing time," Stroup said. "It worked out pretty well for us."

Class 3 power Perryville is missing from the tournament field -- the Pirates, who placed fourth in last season's state tournament and won last week's Notre Dame VolleyballFest, opted to compete in the Oakville Invitational Tournament this year -- but there's plenty of stiff competition hoping to earn a berth in Saturday's Gold Playoff Bracket.

"There still are teams from Eminence and Hazelwood West," Stroup said. "I like this tournament once you get to the bracket part."

The tournament -- formerly known as the SEMO SPIKE High School Girls Volleyball Tourney -- will be held today and Saturday at the Show Me Center, the Southeast Missouri State Student Recreation Center and Notre Dame Regional High School.

The tournament benefits Saint Francis Hospital's Dig for Life program, which was founded by former Southeast volleyball coach Cindy Gannon and provides mammograms to local women who otherwise could not afford the screening. Since its inception in 2000, Dig for Life has given nearly 2,000 free mammograms to women in Southeast Missouri.

"This is just fantastic," Gannon, currently the senior associate director of athletics/senior woman administrator at Southeast. "I applaud the Show Me Center and Saint Francis for working to put this together. Any time we can promote the cause and get the word out is a great opportunity. I think it's a fantastic partnership and great for the university."

The explosion over the years to include 48 teams from Southeast Missouri just adds to the tournament's prestige, Gannon said.

"To bring 48 teams here, and the opportunity for local high schools to participate is just fantastic," Gannon said, noting the Show Me Center also hosted the state volleyball final four a year ago. "It's two wonderful opportunities for individuals to be on the SEMO campus and for the university to be exposed to them."

Jackson is another area team involved in the tournament, and even though the Indians are off to a slow start at 2-5-1, coach Julie Brandmeyer nonetheless is looking forward to the two-day competition.

"It's been a challenge for us," Brandmeyer said, noting her squad has been battling early-season injuries to some of her top hitters. "It's kind of one of those things."

She's hoping her squad uses the tournament to get back on track while also keeping an eye on some of the competition the Indians will see down the road.

"Any time you have a two-day tournament like that, the learning curve and the rate of progress that you can see within those two days, because they play back-to-back-to-back, we can progress in a certain area or a certain aspect of our game," Brandmeyer said. "So it's really nice to play those two days back-to-back."

Central is another area team off to a slow start -- the Tigers are 1-7 -- and hopes the busy tournament schedule injects tournament experience into a young squad.

"We didn't have an easy start to [the season]," Central coach Angela (Broshius) Womack said, noting some tough teams the Tigers faced in the recent Notre Dame VolleyballFest. "We've got some good juniors coming up. We're definitely making some headway."

Womack hopes seeing different competition will help her young Tigers relax.

"There's going to be a bunch of different teams we'll never see again, so hopefully there won't be as much pressure on us," she said. "We just have to worry about what we're doing out there."

Pool play begins today at 4:30 p.m. and resumes at 8 a.m. Saturday, with bracket play following at 1 p.m. Championship matches in three brackets -- Bronze, Silver and Gold -- are slated for 7:15 p.m. at all three venues.

Tickets prices today are $5 for adults and $4 for students, with children 5 and younger free; on Saturday, adult tickets are $9 and students $4.