Notre Dame volleyball team turns back rival Dexter in Class 3 District 1 championship match

Notre Dame volleyball coach Tara Stroup cautioned her players 10 minutes before the start of the Bulldogs' Class 3 District 1 championship game against the defending champion Dexter Bearcats that they were going to have to fight for every point.

ND senior Abbie McAlister and the rest of the Bulldogs took the message to heart.

The Bulldogs celebrated each point on the way to their 25-23, 25-14 victory at Notre Dame Regional High School.

"I feel like we were just so hyped and full of energy that we just came out, played our hearts out and just screamed every point we got," McAlister said before adding with a laugh that she lost her voice midway through the game.

There was a lot to celebrate for the Bulldogs, who won their first district title since 2010 when they reached the Class 3 final four.

"Honestly, everybody says this, but this was the best game we've played all year, without a doubt," Stroup said. "This is the most focused [they've been]. They had their eye on it and they wanted it. They really, really played hard and smart. It's different when we play Dexter and it's different when we play Perryville because we've all played each other so much."

ND scored the first four points of the match and went up 8-3 on a service ace by Sam Feeney before Dexter coach Carmen Morgan took a timeout.

"When she called the first timeout when we got ahead, I said, 'As easily as we got a lead, they can get one back. You cannot take it for granted. You have to fight for every point,'" Stroup said.

Notre Dame's Abbie McAlister (12) and Sam Brennan (10) celebrate with their teammates after winning the first set against Dexter during the Class 3 District 1 championship Tuesday, Oct. 20, 2015 at Notre Dame Regional High School. (Glenn Landberg)

The Bulldogs maintained their five-point lead at 10-5 before the Bearcats went on a 12-5 run to take a 17-15 lead and force ND to take a timeout.

ND had two serve errors and three lift violations during the stretch.

The Bulldogs scored the first two points out of the break to tie it before a kill by Hannah Thurmon and a block pushed the Dexter lead back to two.

A kill down the left line by ND's Allyson Jansen, a Dexter attack error and net violation put the Bulldogs back up 20-19.

The Bearcats tied it at 20 and 21 before ND took the lead for good.

McAlister snapped the tie with a kill in the middle. She had two more as the Bulldogs won the set 25-23.

"I felt like we never got in a rhythm. Whether that's from nerves, who knows, but we never got a rhythm going and I felt like we couldn't get our offensive game going," Morgan said. "And when you don't get your offensive game going, then you're just struggling, and that's what I felt like we did. Now, we made a run in that first game, but once again, you dig yourself a hole against a good team and it's tough to get out of it."

The Bulldogs never trailed in the second set but never led by more than three until McAlister tipped one past the Bearcats for a point that made it 12-8 and was part of a 7-0 run that made it 17-8 and led to a Dexter timeout.

"Second game I really thought we'd come out and we'd get on top of it," Morgan said, "but they immediately dominated the net and we just never did."

Notre Dame stretched its lead to as much as 23-10.

McAlister paced the Bulldogs with 14 kills while Sam Brennan added seven.

Notre Dame's Sam Feeney sets the ball as Dexter's Julia Hahn watches during the first set of the Class 3 District 1 championship Tuesday, Oct. 20, 2015 at Notre Dame Regional High School. (Glenn Landberg)

Stroup credited the defensive play of libero Marianna Below, Lexi Welter and Briley Bieser with the success of the offense along with setter Sam Feeney's distribution of the ball.

"I feel like both games we put them on the defensive quite a bit," Stroup said. "We served aggressively, our hitting was just well-placed and kept them scrambling and we were able to run our offense. We got a lot of free balls and that's not characteristic of them. We were able to use that to our advantage."

Sophomore Krysten Garrison led the Bearcats with eight kills while sophomore Hannah Thurmon had six.

Dexter concluded its season with a record of 27-5.

"I just told them in there we have had a good season with a lot of young kids," Morgan said. "We are 27-5, and in the five we have two to Notre Dame, two to Helias Catholic and one to Farmington. My message to them was you always need to learn from a loss. I always like for them to look around and see how everybody's cheering for the other side. You kind of need to understand how it feels to lose.

"And then my other message was, 'Get your heads up. Have some class. We're a classy team. And walk out there and if anybody asks you what happened you say, 'Listen, we didn't play to lose, but it happened and we'll learn from it and be ready next year.'"

ND improved to 32-3-2 and will face St. Pius X of Festus in a sectional at St. Pius on Saturday.

"We worked really hard for this," Stroup said. "They're all just in heaven right now because it's something that they've worked for all year. We play each other in shootouts in the summer and we've got a pretty good relationship with Dexter's team. It's a competitive, fun rivalry but we know each other pretty well and so this was something that they've worked for all year."