BEARCAT VOLLEYBALL AFTER REGIONAL BERTH

The Bearcat volleyball team has its biggest game of 2024 tonight at Bearcat Gymnasium when they face off with Dover at 5 p.m. in the District 3A-5 tournament.

The winner of the match earns both a game against tournament top seed Paris on Wednesday, another game on Thursday, and a berth in the regional tournament next week in Mansfield.

The Bearcats, who are seeded fifth, punched their ticket into today’s match by beating Perryville yesterday in straight sets, 25-12, 25-15, 25-12.

Dover is the four seed and had a first round by largely due to a 3-2 win over the Bearcats in Dover on September 19.

To get to today’s match the Bearcats dominated Perryville from the outset.

In the first set the Bearcats were up 5-4 when Cameron Parish went to the service line and it was 10-4 after her second ace during the service period forcing a Perryville time out.

Farrah Stringer was on serve for an early session that gave the Bearcats an early 7-2 lead in the second set and an ace by Ellie Smith had it at 14-6.

By the end of the match Smith had accumulated seven kills, Shelbie Myers had six, Vanessa O’Neal five, and Parish four. Myers also had five blocks and Smith added four.

Recently surpassing the 2,000 mark in digs, Lilly Downs added 23 more Monday to go with a couple of aces. Emily Wooldridge contributed 12 digs and Rylee Haller had nine.