The Notre Dame girls soccer team has excelled on the soccer field in recent years, capturing three straight district titles and making two state final four appearances.

For all their success on the field, the Bulldogs' most recent award came for their work away from the field. Notre Dame recently received the Team Academic Award from the National Soccer Coaches Association of America.

Teams with a 3.25 GPA or higher were eligible for the award. The award took into account the 2004-05 academic year.

Notre Dame was one of six girls teams from Missouri to receive the award out of 223 girls teams awarded nationally.

The Bulldogs finished with a team GPA of 3.77. The team GPA included the full academic year, and was calculated by adding up the GPAs of each team member and dividing by the number of players on the team.

"They put a lot of work in -- not just in coming out and putting work in at practice -- but they take care of their grades and do service," Notre Dame coach Jeff Worley said. "You try to get them recognition. They're taking care of that [academic] side, too."

Saxony's second tourney

The six-team Saxony Lutheran Christmas Tournament will begin Dec. 27 at Saxony Lutheran High School.

Saxony Lutheran, St. Vincent and Zalma will make up Pool A, while Christ Our Savior Lutheran of Evansville (Ill.), Ste. Genevieve and Valle Catholic make up Pool B. This is the second year of the tournament.

There will be two pool play games each night on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday with games at 6 and 7:30.

The winner of each pool will meet in the championship game, scheduled for 7:30 p.m. on Dec. 30.

Bloomfield seeds set

Farmington Tournament winner Doniphan earned the top seed in the annual Bloomfield Christmas Tournament.

The annual 16-team boys basketball tournament will begin Dec. 26. The championship game is set for 8:30 p.m. on Dec. 29.

South Pemiscot, Twin Rivers and Portageville round out the top four seeds in the tournament. Dexter, the seven-time defending champion, is seeded sixth.

College notes

• Central and Jackson will each be represented during the college football bowl season. Jackson graduate Travis Dambach, a starting offensive lineman at the University of Kansas, will try to help the Jayhawks defeat Houston at the Forth Worth Bowl on Friday.

The New Orleans Bowl, which opens up the bowl season on Tuesday, will pit Southern Mississippi against Arkansas State. Central graduate Mitch Craft has appeared in several games for Southern Mississippi this season, while Jackson graduate Tyler McNeely is on the roster at Arkansas State.