The Jackson Indians volleyball team defeated the Saxony Lutheran Crusaders in straight sets on Monday at Saxony Lutheran High School.

Saxony made things tough on Jackson in the first two sets with the Indians surviving close games by scores of 25-19 and 25-21. Jackson ran away with the third set 25-13. Indians head coach David Mirly said although his team may have been tired from a weekend tournament in St. Louis, they never showed it.

“It shows how mentally tough we are. We have a saying in our program that says ‘great players never get tired’ which I know they do, but they will never admit it or act like they're tired,” Mirly said. “So I'm sure we were a little bit tired tonight, but there's no way they would let that slow them down tonight.”

With the win over the Crusaders, Jackson finished undefeated in the conference and claimed a third consecutive SEMO Conference regular season championship. Mirly said he is proud of his team and happy for his seniors.

“It means so much to the seniors because this is their last year, we take a lot of pride in winning the conference and we've won it for so many years in a row this senior class didn't want to be the team that got the streak broken,” Mirly said. “I'm so happy for all seven of my seniors. They all work so hard in practice. They all care about their teammates so much, and for them to get this victory tonight, I'm just so happy for them.”

Jackson has won the conference tournament championship the last five seasons and is looking to make it six when the tournament kicks off on Thursday. Mirly said winning the regular season championship is good but you cannot take anyone in the conference lightly come tournament time.

“It’s going to give us confidence. But the way Saxony played us tonight, they're going to come in with a lot of confidence too. Saxony did not quit at all tonight and they just kept fighting. So there's another team that's going to be hyped up and ready to go,” Mirly said. “Cape, Dexter and Notre Dame are tough too. This is the best and the strongest I've seen our conference since I've been here so we're excited about the tournament and the challenges it presents.”

The SEMO conference tournament is Thursday at the Cape Girardeau Sportsplex beginning at 3 p.m.