PURPLE TEAMS WIN

Divided into Purple and White teams, the Bearcat volleyball team played sets for Booneville Elementary students this morning.

The Purple team won the first set, played in what is likely to be the loudest gym head coach Bailey Stringer’s team faces this season.

The decibels were provided by the fourth through sixth grades in PE facility/Boys & Girls Club.

The 25-14 loss in the set did not matter to senior Camdyn Dove, who as the libero was actually wearing purple on Friday. “We won the one that mattered,” Dove said.

Dove was referencing, of course, the Purple-White match held Thursday night at Bearcat Gym when Dove’s team, then in Purple, won a straight set match of the White team, 25-21 and 25-14.

“We should have brought in the gold ball (the winning team’s reward for victory),” Dove said, then added "I'm just saying that's two years in a row I've been on the team that won the gold ball."

The Thursday Purple/Friday White team consisted of six seniors, a junior, and three sophomores.

On Friday Dove’s team, wearing white, had a chance to earn a split by taking a set played before the BES first through third grade students, but they were unable to do so as the Purple team won 25-20.

The Friday Purple squad featured sophomore libero Lilly Downs, who was named to the All Camp team in Branson, Mo., during the summer.

The Bearcats open the season Monday with a road trip to Mena, which is where Stringer went to high school.