ND GIRLS CLAIM OWN TOURNAMENT

It ended in a loss, but the Notre Dame Tournament was a boost for Cape Girardeau Central's volleyball team.

The Lady Tigers, who have been hit hard by youth and the loss of players during the season, went 3-1 in pool play Wednesday and qualified for a championship matchup against Notre Dame -- and a little excitement in a trying season.

Completing the varsity-JV sweep, Notre Dame prevailed in the title match 15-5, 15-2 Thursday night. The Lady Bulldogs' JV beat Oak Ridge 15-10, 14-16, 15-11.

In other varsity matches Thursday, Scott City beat Oran 15-5, 15-13 for third place, and Marquand prevailed 15-11, 15-8 over Oak Ridge for fifth.

Last season, Central took third in the tournament. The second-place result on Thursday was the best performance in a tournament in Central volleyball history, said Central coach April Morgan.

"My girls are finally just now starting to come together," said Morgan. "Hopefully we'll have a few (good matches) at the end of the year to kind of keep them pumped to work hard in the off-season."

In the first game, Notre Dame opened by scoring five successive points on Jennifer Glueck's hitting and a pair of kills by Kelli Canfield.

The lead grew to 8-0 before Central scored twice on Notre Dame hitting errors to make the score 8-2. The Lady Bulldogs then stretched the lead to 12-2 on four Central errors.

A kill by Central's Amber Birk made the score 12-4, but a service ace by Abby Heisserer and kills by Canfield and Jessica Hency won the game for Notre Dame.

"(We) played all right," said Notre Dame coach Janet Buchheit, whose team improved to 12-4-2. "I don't think they played as well as they would normally play."

Central led 2-0 after two Notre Dame errors in the second game, but the Lady Bulldogs scored 15 unanswered points.

Erin Vickery, Bonnie Essner, Canfield and Stephanie Miller each had a service ace, and Vickery and Jessica Lawrence each had two kills that scored points.

Lawrence led Notre Dame with four kills and Vickery had two solo blocks.