Dexter volleyball team secures regular-season conference title with win against Advance

Note: A photo gallery of the Dexter-Advance volleyball game is available at this link: Volleyball Photos

DEXTER, Mo. - The Dexter Bearcats varsity volleyball team wrapped up its third straight SCAA regular-season conference title with a 25-18, 25-17 victory against the Advance Hornets Monday night.

Advance, which took Dexter three sets earlier this month, forced the Bearcats to commit nine attack errors in the second meeting between the two squads.

Dexter jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the first set and increased its advantage to as large as 16-9 before the Hornets came storming back. Advance enjoyed an 8-1 run midway into the first set that cut Dexter's lead to 17-16. The Hornets remained within one at 19-18 before Dexter took the final six points for a 25-18 victory.

Neither team led by more than two points in the first 20 points of the second set. The second set was tied 10-10 before Dexter scored five straight points to build a 15-10 advantage. Advance followed with the next four points to trim the deficit to 15-14. The Bearcats won nine of the next 11 points to increase its lead to 24-16.

"I feel like we are at a point where you just cannot seem to get everybody on at the same time," Advance coach Erin Hoffman said. "We will get in a game and two girls will have a great game and two others won't and then it flip flops. We just need to start working together as a whole better."

Dexter coach Carmen Morgan identified serving as a needed area of improvement following the contest.

"We missed six or seven serves in the second game and that cannot happen," Morgan said. "We've got to work on our serving. But we knew Advance would be ready for us. Advance is always ready to play us and they gave us a good game tonight like they always do."

Hoffman credited junior libero India Phillips for defending Dexter's strong hitting.

"I thought my libero did some good stuff tonight," Hoffman said.

Advance junior hitter Brylee Morse recorded five kills. Advance sophomore hitter Alanis Below calculated four additional kills.

Advance freshman Addison Curtis scored a pair of points on dump sets in the first set and had a pair of aces serving in the second set.

"I have a freshman that is really starting to learn the game," Hoffman said. "She had a few more dumps tonight, which she had never really tried before. Every game it seems like she gets better."

Krysten Garrison paced Dexter with 12 kills. Hannah Thurmon added eight more kills.

Julia Hahn had a team-high 15 assists. Garrison recorded 10 assists.

Ashley Brown had a team-leading seven digs for Dexter.

Garrison and Thurmon both calculated a pair of blocks.

"We had people step up when we needed them," Morgan said. "It takes everybody and we got contributions when we needed them most tonight."

The Bearcats improve to 6-0 in SCAA regular-season play with the victory. The Hornets, which have only played two regular-season conference games so far, have SCAA games against Puxico, Bloomfield, Bell City, Woodland and Richland left on its regular-season schedule.

Dexter (18-3-2) visits Leopold Tuesday.

Advance (11-7-2), which has played its last four games on the road, returns home Thursday to take on Puxico.

"I really feel good about where we are at," Hoffman said. "We've gotten over that hump as far as trusting the new skills we are learning. But with most of them being pretty young and it being their first time on varsity playing together now is the time we need to learn how to play together and trust each other, not just our skills, so we can become more of a team."

DUSTIN WARD - dward@dailystatesman.com Advance freshman Addison Curtis sets a ball Monday night against Dexter.

*