ND advances to Final Four

BLOOMFIELD, Mo. -- Notre Dame volleyball coach Helen Payne talked it.

And her Lady Bulldogs walked it.

Notre Dame fulfilled Payne's preseason prediction that the Lady Bulldog would make it to the Final Four as they captured wins in both the Class 2A sectional and quarterfinal rounds Saturday at Bloomfield High.

Both were gritty victories as Notre Dame won a marathon battle over Clearwater (17-10-2) in the sectional, 15-10, 12-15 and 15-9. Then about two hours later, the Lady Bulldogs rallied in the second set to beat last year's quarterfinal winner, Bismarck, 15-8, 16-14.

"We had to fight, fight, fight," Payne said. "We've had some key injuries this year, but we were tough, we made it and these kids deserved it. They all worked really, really hard."

"Even from the first day of practice, we knew we were going to state," senior Courtney Vickery said. "And we're finally here. I'm so excited!"

Payne told the Southeast Missourian before the season began that the Lady Bulldogs would make it to Warrensburg, Mo., the site for the volleyball Final Four. But she didn't expect the injuries. Though they've had a handful of injuries over the past month or so, only one player was out for Saturday's matches. But that player -- Ali Tyson -- is likely the best overall athlete on the team. She will probably be back for next Friday's round-robin play with St. Pius X (Kansas City), Fair Grove and Hermann.

But the Lady Bulldogs (27-8-1) managed without her Saturday as senior first-year player Deana McCormick gave a new definition to the words 'Dog pound.' The senior Lady Bulldog punished the volleyball Saturday, recording 20 kills against Clearwater and 16 against Bismarck.

McCormick didn't want to take any of the credit, though.

As if embarrassed, she pointed to Vickery and said, "She's the senior captain. She's the one that keeps the team together, not me."

McCormick, an excellent basketball player as well, was particularly dominant in the first set of the quarterfinal match against Bismarck (27-7-2).

The Lady Indians had no answer for the 6-foot-1 middle hitter as McCormick had three monster kills and a stuff-block for Notre Dame's final four points of the first set. Notre Dame trailed 8-6, but finished the first set on a 9-0 run.

Vickery said that stretch is the best McCormick has played this season.

Bismarck coach Paula AuBuchon was impressed as well.

"She hurt us a lot," she said. "She's hard to deal with. She's going to fit right in up there at the Final Four."

It appeared that the quarterfinal match was going to go to three games. Notre Dame trailed at one point 11-4, but the Lady Bulldogs battled back.

"We wanted to calm down because we knew we could beat them and we didn't want to go to three games," Vickery said.

Once Notre Dame managed a 13-11 lead, the game went back-and-forth from there.

Notre Dame finally won when Bismarck made an error on the final point.

Once the ball went array, small huddles of hugging Notre Dame players celebrated. Some cried tears of joy, perhaps remembering back to last year when Bismarck beat Notre Dame.

"What made it so good is that they beat us last year," said sophomore setter Summer McCauley. "Nobody thought we could do it with the injuries we had, but we sure proved them wrong."

Given that both matches were competitive, the Lady Bulldogs put up some impressive statistics in both contests.

Against Clearwater, Jennifer VanGennip provided 13 kills, while Vickery posted 10 kills and 16 digs.

In the Bismarck game, VanGennip posted eight kills, while Vickery had four kills and 15 digs. Erin Pfau and McCaulley contributed 14 and 12 digs, respectively.