Loud and clear - No. 2 Leopold overwhelms No. 1 Notre Dame

LEOPOLD, Mo. -- Leopold didn't just campaign for the top spot in the SEMO Top 10 volleyball poll Thursday night.

The Wilcats bound and gagged the incumbent and proceeded to stuff the ballot box.

Playing its final regular-season game before a packed home crowd, Leopold posted a surprisingly easy 15-4, 15-4 victory over Notre Dame in a meeting of the top two ranked teams in Southeast Missouri.

Leopold, ranked No. 2, improved to 28-2-1 while top-ranked Notre Dame fell to 29-5-1.

"We always had the momentum going our way," Leopold coach Leanne Huffman said. "We started off dominating and we finished it."

The home of the Wildcats was fittingly wild throughout the evening for the big showdown. A crowd of between 500 and 600 people packed into the gymnasium, which seats only 350.

Huffman said it was the biggest home crowd in her six years. Leopold superintendent Bob Turner one upped Huffman, saying it was the biggest crowd in his 18 years.

"We knew it'd be packed and we knew it'd be loud," Huffman said.

At its quietest, the overflow crowd, featuring blue-wigged fans and a lot of white hankies waving, never dropped below a high-decibel rumble. At its maximum, it was louder than a Liberace outfit, featuring chants of "We are ND" and "Let's go Wildcats."

At times the entire gymnasium was standing room only.

And that was just during a three-set junior-varsity match won by Notre Dame 16-14, 14-16, 16-14.

"I thought it would go back and forth and be 16-14, 16-14 just like the junior varsity, but my girls came out and were ready to play," Huffman said.

The Wildcats saw to it that the varsity match was anticlimactic. Notre Dame's first spike of the night was turned into a kill-block by Holly Jansen and Wendy Vandeven, and it never got better for the Bulldogs. With Jansen leading the way, Leopold rolled out to an 11-1 lead in the first game. Notre Dame got only as close as 11-3 before Leopold closed it out when a Bulldog spike went wide, one of numerous miscues by Notre Dame.

Notre Dame mistakes, including an illegal alignment on a serve, compounded by strong Leopold play, led to a 10-0 Wildcat start in the second game. Notre Dame only got as close as 12-4 before the quick end came on three Bulldog miss-hits at the net.

"It's very disappointing," Notre Dame coach Tara Stroup said. "We played terrible. When you don't move, you don't get down and balls hit the ground and we just stand there and watch ... I don't know. Whatever it is, hopefully we can work it out before districts."

Jansen, honored with her fellow seniors before the game, finished with a game-high 12 kills.

"This is the top one," Jansen said. "This beats beating Jackson."

Fellow senior Courtney Wesbecher, who had two kills, said the crowd, senior night and Notre Dame's ranking helped fuel the Wildcats.

"We were full of emotion and that helped," Wesbecher said. "It's nice to end the season like this. Hopefully we can carry the momentum into districts."

Lori VanderMierden finished with five kills for Leopold, which also got four from Tasha Thele. Wendy Vandeven dished out 16 assists.

Notre Dame senior Ali Tyson, who had nine assists and two kills, was among the shell-shocked Bulldogs.

"We never lost this bad to anyone," Tyson said. "We were not on our game. We played just awful."

Erin Pfau paced Notre Dame with six kills while Laura Brown had five. Sommer McCauley also had nine assists and two kills.

Stroup said her team, which had rolled over competition much of the season, hadn't been in a competitive match since a win over Jackson a couple of weeks ago.

"It could be good, but we've got to learn from it," Stroup said. "We can't just think we're going to walk all over everybody. This is a good one to end on, because it shows that if we don't play well, we're going to lose."

Both teams begin district play next week.

jbreer@semissourian.com

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