Perryville turns back Notre Dame a third time

Perryville junior Alex Spears wants the ball when the match is on the line. And, equally important, her team needs her to want it.

"I do. I want to be that person to go to," Spears said. "I just want to help my team as much as I can. I love to be that person that they can go to and make sure I boost everybody's confidence up a little bit and get the energy going."

Spears had five kills and a block in her team's final 10 points of a 25-17, 15-25, 25-21 victory over host Notre Dame in the Class 3 District 1 championship on Tuesday.

"She's the leader of the team," Perryville coach Dave Mirly said. "She's our go-to girl. She stepped up and loves that role. She's done a great job with it."

Sophomore Brooke Hogard capped off the Perryville victory with a solo block in the middle.

BELOW: Perryville’s Brooke Hogard celebrates a point against Notre Dame in the second set. Additional photos can be viewed at semoball.com. (ABOVE: Perryville’s Kaylie Hadler and Notre Dame’s Mary-Liz Klueppel battle at the net during the Class 3 District 1 championship game.)

"Oh my goodness," Hogard said, trying to describe the play. "It was beyond. I didn't even know how to react. I don't think I could scream any louder, but it felt so good to help the team out and just finally get that final point that we'd been working so hard for."

The Pirates trailed by as many as six points in the third game when Spears' hitting error gave Notre Dame a 13-7 lead.

"We told everybody that we had to stay positive and confident and that it was do-or-die time, and we had to push as hard as we could," Spears said, but that was sometimes difficult.

"It was at times, especially when they had big leads," Spears said. "It was hard, especially at the beginning of the third game when we dug ourselves a hole."

Perryville dominated the first game and built leads of 7-2 and 19-10 as Notre Dame made uncharacteristic hitting errors and recorded just six team kills in the game, one of which came on a fluke play.

Perryville coach Dave Mirly checks the scoreboard early in the third game of the Pirates’ Class 3 District 1 championship match against Notre Dame on Tuesday at Notre Dame Regional High School. Perryville won 25-17, 15-25, 25-21. (Laura Simon)

The Bulldogs looked like a different team in the second game and built a 7-3 lead that prompted Mirly to call a timeout.

"When Notre Dame passes well, they're almost unbeatable," Mirly said. "When they're doing their thing -- just like when we're doing our thing, we're pretty good, too.

"With their height and their defense and stuff, they do a lot of great things. Our serving wasn't as aggressive the second game and our passing wasn't quite as good, so we couldn't attack them, which made it easier on them to get good passes."

Notre Dame recorded 16 team kills in the second game and dictated the rallies. At one point, 11 consecutive points ended with either a Notre Dame kill, ace or error.

"I was just kind of like, 'We can play with them,'" Note Dame coach Tara Stroup said. "It's kind of a mental block thing with them. We just have to realize that if we play our game, we're in good shape."

Perryville's Brooke Hogard celebrates a point against Notre Dame in the second match of the Pirates' Class 3 District 1 championship game against the Lady Bulldogs, Tuesday, Oct. 29, 2013, in Cape Girardeau. Perryville won 25-17, 15-25 and 25-21. (Laura Simon)

Both teams played well down the stretch. After a 6-1 run earned Perryville a one-point lead, there were ties at 17, 18, and 19 points. But a 3-0 Perryville spurt that included a Spears kill and block gave the Pirates enough breathing room to close out the match.

"In the third game, everybody got what they wanted, down to the very end," Mirly said.

It was the third year in a row that the Pirates defeated Notre Dame for the district title. The Bulldogs, who defeated Dexter 25-14, 25-18 earlier Tuesday to advance to the title game, finished the season 32-3. All three losses came to Perryville (29-4).

"I told them before this, you know we played really well against Dexter," Stroup said. "We came out and played hard. Perryville's a good team, and it was battle. I told them at the beginning, 'It's going to be a battle.' You have to fight for your points."

Notre Dame, which had 10 seniors on their roster compared to one for Perryville, stayed in the locker room for an extended time after the match.

"One of them just said, 'We just played as well as we could, and it just hurts so bad,'" Stroup said. "I was like, 'It does hurt so bad now, right now. ... But when you look back at it, if you know you've played as hard as you can, there's nothing else you could do and you've got to be proud of your effort. If you leave it on the court and fight, you can't feel bad about that. I'm really proud of them."

Stroup said the feeling after a high-quality match between high-quality teams was different that what she'd experienced at the end of some seasons.

"If you don't win state or get third in state, you don't win on your last game, so I've been through plenty of these in 13 years," Stroup said. "Sometimes I have that sick feeling like, 'We didn't do this or we should've done this.' I don't have it tonight because they played as hard as they could, and that's all I can ask of them."

Perryville, which finished fourth in the state last season, advanced to face the winner of tonight's Class 3 District 4 championship at a location yet to be decided on Saturday.

"This group is so resilient," Mirly said. "Last year's group was so mentally tough, but the word for this group is resilient."