CAPE GIRARDEAU — High schools from around the region including Perryville, St. Vincent and Saxony Lutheran competed in the Dig For Life Tournament over the weekend at the Show Me Center on the campus of Southeast Missouri State University.
The competition was split into two divisions, red and black. The Pirates, Indians and Crusaders all played in the red division, the higher of the two.
Perryville finished the weekend winning the championship in the silver bracket of the red division, Saxony advanced through to the finals of the gold bracket, the highest bracket of the tournament, losing in four sets to Hillsboro.
The Crusaders didn’t lose a set through their first two matches Friday, beating Greene County Tech and Kennett 2-0. After a 1-1 tie with Central Park Hills to open play Saturday, Saxony beat Winona and Notre Dame, both in 2 sets to advance to the final against Hillsboro.
In the final, Hillsboro took a close first set 25-21, Saxony bounced back to tie things up with a 25-13 second set. In the decisive third set, Hillsboro outlasted the Crusaders to win 25-22 and take the championship, leaving the now 12-1-1 Saxony team the overall runners up in the tournament.
“We always want to strive to earn that first place trophy,” Saxony coach Dawn Ozark said following the runner up finish. ‘However, we felt like across the two days of the tournament, we were competing against some really great teams that gave us the opportunity to learn and grow from each of those steps. So while overall we are proud of our second place trophy, I think more so we’re proud of what we were able to learn and what we’re able to put into what we need to do to take on that next game and come out victorious there.”
Perryville got off to a slow start, ending up in the silver bracket of the red division after tying in two matches Friday against Arcadia Valley and Bismark and losing Saturday morning to Notre Dame, all without their star senior Paige Berkbigler, who injured her ankle early in the tournament.
“Their bodies are wearing down a little bit so going into the tournament, we did have some girls who were battling through some light injuries,” coach Liz Meyer said. “Playing so many games really pulled those injuries out of them so it was definitely a little bit of a struggle.”
Once in the silver bracket, the Pirates won three straight, beating St. Vincent and Central Park Hills advanced to the silver bracket championship where they beat Central (Cape Girardeau).
“This tournament taught us how to adapt to changes and how to know that it takes all 16 of my players to have good results,” Meyer said. “We’re not happy exactly with how the tournament ended up, but I’m proud of the girls for adapting and still being able to secure that Silver Bracket Championship, especially with everyone battling injuries and then Paige going down.”
St. Vincent continued their rebuilding year, going 1-4 in the tournament with losses to Perryville, Winona, and Leopold, and a 1-1 tie with Central (Cape Girardeau).
The Indian’s win over Portageville was their first win of the season, coach Sue Verseman said that playing against such high level competition in the midst of a rebuild proves that the Indians have what it takes to return to playing winning volleyball.
“We know we’re rebuilding this year, but we purposely went into the tournament wanting to play in the red division just so that the girls can see tough competition,” Verseman said. “And we really feel like they responded to the competition and really played up to the level that they’re capable of.”
The Indians used the tournament to experiment with some lineup changes that Verseman said should help them as the regular season progresses.
“We have two sizable blockers, so when we play somebody with this big outside, we change our lineup and move our middle hitters to the right side, or vice versa,” Verseman said. “Fortunately, the girls are responding well. We kind of have one open spot that just hasn’t been clenched by a player yet, and we’re trying out different players every match, and they’re really competing well for it. And I think in the long run, it’s really gonna make us better in the end.”
Perryville and St. Vincent both returned to their regular seasons Monday night. The Indians lost a three set match against Notre Dame, and the Pirates won in three at Fredericktown.
