Dexter rolls past Fredericktown; NMCC loses in three sets to Kennett

sports@standard-democrat.com

DEXTER -- Pulling away early in both sets, the third-seeded Dexter Lady Bearcats swept the sixth-seeded Fredericktown Lady Blackcats 25-11, 25-17 on Monday to advance to the semifinals of the Class 3, District 1 Tournament.

"We did a lot of good things, but not what I had hoped for in a district game," Dexter head coach Lauren Hutchcraft said. "We better come out a completely different team tomorrow night if we want to beat Notre Dame (in the semifinals)."

Tied 4-4 early in the first set, the Lady Bearcats got a quick kill before riding the serving of Hannah Noe to eight straight points as Dexter pulled away 12-4. Noe had five aces during the run that was capped by a kill from Erika Cobb.

After Noe's next serve hit the net to break up the run, the Lady Bearcats went on to take nine of the next 13 points to force Fredericktown to call a timeout following another Cobb kill at 22-10.

Undeterred, Dexter came out of the break swapping point with the Lady Blackcats before back-to-back kills from Jessica Lindsey closed out the set.

Coming out to a 7-7 tie in the second, the Lady Bearcats once again used a big rally to put some distance between them and the Lady Blackcats. Taking the next seven points, Dexter quickly started to run away with the game, going ahead 21-12 when a kill from Lindsey forced Fredericktown to call a timeout.

Though the Lady Blackcats took three of the next four points, Dexter worked their way to match point at 24-17 before a missed kill from Fredericktown ended the match.

"We did better on the serving line," Hutchcraft said. "We didn't miss as many serves as we had been. We were moving our feet a little better, but we just weren't fired up.

"That's the thing. I just didn't see very much enthusiasm or the intensity that we need in the game."

On the match, Cob had a team-high seven kills and two blocks. Brittany Harris had four kills, a block and three digs with Lindsey contributing six kills and five digs.

Noe finished the night with 11 assists, 12 digs, six kills, five aces and was 11 of 13 in serves. McKenzie Mitchell had nine digs, four kills and an ace.

Advancing to the semifinals, Dexter will face the second-seeded Notre Dame Lady Bulldogs who swept Doniphan 25-19, 25-11 in their first round match.

"I'm ready," said Hutchcraft. "We've played them twice now this year and lost both times. I want to come out and beat them."

Kennett 2, NMCC 1

DEXTER -- Unable to overcome a rough start to the third set, the fifth-seeded New Madrid County Central Lady Eagles saw their season come to a close at the hands of the fourth-seeded Kennett Lady Indians 25-22, 21-25, 25-17.

"We came back from a pretty good deficit and worked hard," NMCC head coach Brad Kolwyck said. "That's all I can ask. The girls just keep working hard and getting better after every practice and they're doing the little things right. We'll come back and surprise people next year."

After coming off a 25-22 first set loss, the Lady Eagles held off a late Lady Indian rally in the second game to tie things up with a 25-21 win. A miserable start to the third set, however, proved to much to overcome.

After splitting the first two points, NMCC watched Kennett take 19 of the next 21 points to go 20-3, forcing the Lady Eagles to burn both of their timeouts in the process.

Not laying down, NMCC got a side-out from the Lady Indians on the next point to kick off a huge turnaround where they went on a 11-3 run, forcing Kennett to call a timeout at 23-14 following a kill from Alecia Nelson.

Getting an ace from Nelson coming out of the break, the Lady Eagles took three of the next four points to close to within seven points, but Kennett was already set up at match point.

With no room for error, NMCC ran out of time when Kennett's Audrey Wynne slammed down one final kill from center net to seal the win at 25-17.

"They got a little spark," Kolwyck said of the Lady Eagles' late turnaround. "It's kind of like when we got that second wind (in the second set). We played three sets and I can understand the girls being tired, I stuck with pretty much the same eight or nine girls the whole night and they played really hard.

"But overall the girls that we had out on the floor they played the best they could. That's what I told them at the beginning of the game. If they played hard and did the best they could, there would be no complaints from me."