St. Vincent, Leopold to meet for district crown

St. Vincent and Leopold will once again meet in tonight's championship game of the Class 1 District 3 Tournament at Meadow Heights High School in Patton.

The top-seeded Indians (23-7-3) crushed the fourth-seeded host Panthers 25-8, 25-12 in a semifinal Monday night to advance to the title game. Meadow Heights (13-14-2) rolled over fifth-seeded Zalma 25-13, 25-14 in the opening quarterfinal. The Bulldogs ended their season with a record of 8-17-1.

Second-seeded Leopold thumped seventh-seeded Marquand-Zion 25-13, 25-6 in the second quarterfinal of the evening to end the Tigers' difficult season winless at 0-23. Third-seeded Greenville then downed sixth-seeded Oak Ridge 20-25, 25-18, 25-17 to advance to the semifinal with the Wildcats. The Bluejays wrapped up their season with a record of 5-21.

The Wildcats were able to avoid a scare from the Bears in the final game of the evening after dropping the first set 25-23 to come back and take the second set by the same score before finally finding their momentum in the third set to clinch the victory 25-14. Greenville ended its season at 17-15-1.

St. Vincent upset Leopold 23-25, 27-25, 27-25 for last year's Class 1 District 3 championship. The Indians made it all the way to the state tournament before falling to Winona, which won its third consecutive state title that year.