Lady Tribe heads back to Bootheel finals

PORTAGEVILLE, Mo. -- At tournament time, the name of the game is often survive and advance.

The Kennett Lady Indians did just that, overcoming a slow start to down the Caruthersville Lady Tigers 25-21, 25-19 in the semifinals of the Bootheel Conference Tournament here Wednesday night.

Top-seeded Kennett (16-7-4) will take on third-seeded South Pemiscot for the varsity championship tonight at 7:30 p.m. South Pemiscot downed No. 2 Senath-Hornersville 25-21, 20-25, 27-25 in Wednesday's other semifinal.

"Definitely survival," Kennett coach Laura Ort said. "We're excited to be in the championship. Coming into (Thursday), I'm sure South Pem is going to bring their A game. We'll do our best to bring ours -- it should be a great matchup jayvee and varsity."

The Lady Tribe will also play South Pem for the jayvee championship to open the evening at 6 p.m.

Against Caruthersville, the Lady Tribe rebounded from an early 5-3 deficit to take a 14-9 lead in the opening set, but the Lady Tigers ran off six straight points to retake the lead and force Ort to call a timeout.

"We just had to make a little bit better passes," said Ort, "and be a little bit more fundamental instead of getting excited about what we were doing and looking a step ahead. We (started to play) fundamental volleyball."

Caruthersville scored the next point to go up 16-14, but the Lady Indians scored the next nine points with Ciara Dewrock on the service line to take a 23-16 lead.

The Lady Tigers made one last rally to cut the Kennett lead to 24-21, but the Lady Tribe closed out the set on an Audrey Wynne kill.

In set No. 2, Dewrock's kill snapped a 7-all tie and put the Lady Indians ahead to stay. Taylor Wake added a kill and an ace in succession to make it an 11-8 edge, and Kennett pushed its lead to 19-12 on Wynne's block.

Dewrock led the Lady Tribe with six kills and three blocks, while also serving a pair of aces and coming up with six digs. Wake added five kills, seven digs and a pair of aces and Wynne contributed four kills, three blocks, three digs and an ace.

Jody Vancil finished with six digs and a pair of aces, while Jamie Jarrett added two kills and two digs and Chrisie Burrow dished off 16 assists from her setter position.

Thursday will mark the third straight year that Kennett has played for the Bootheel Conference Tournament championship. The Lady Tribe won it in 2008 and finished second in 2007.

South Pem. def. Senath-H'ville
In Wednesday's first semifinal, the Lady Bulldogs avenged an earlier loss to the Lady Lions to reach Thursday's finals.

In the deciding third set, there were nine ties and three lead changes but it was arguably the play of hitter Shelby Booker that made the difference.

Booker finished the set with six kills, including the final go-ahead kill to snap a 25-25 tie.

South Pem won the opening set, but Senath-Hornersville rallied to take the second set behind four kills from senior Megan Smith.