Fresh off a sweep of both matches Friday on their home court against Dixon, Kaci Jones’ Bland Lady Bear volleyball teams looked to duplicate the feat Monday night with Hermann’s Lady Bears paying a visit to Bland Middle School.

Starting with the eighth-grade match, Bland saw a 24-14 first-set lead turn into a 26-24 setback.

From there, Bland stormed back winning the next two sets and the match by scores of 24-26, 25-22 and 25-9.

Leading the majority of game one, Bland got four service points from Lydia Jones to go along with three service points each from Saige Garner, Cylee Reed and Piper Marsee.

Nursing a 16-14 lead midway through game two, the Lady Bears got two service points from Jones and a Marsee ace helping them even the match at a set apiece sending it to a deciding third game.

Taking a 15-9 lead midway through game three, Jones caught fire from behind the service line serving the final 10 points of the match while recording five aces.

Jones also had three kills unofficially to lead the Lady Bears.

In the seventh-grade match, Bland was going for their first victory of the season in a full match.

Due to low numbers on Dixon’s team, they only played one set Friday night with the Lady Bears coming out on top 25-15.

Also needing three sets to decide a winner, Bland took the first set in seventh-grade action 25-21 before Hermann came back to take game two 25-16 forcing another third-and-deciding set.

Behind four aces from Makayla Jones midway through game three, Bland went on to take game three and the match by scores of 25-21, 16-25 and 25-13.

Leading 11-10 midway through game one, a Hermann service error sent Elayna White behind the serving line for Bland.

Rattling off nine points in a row, White helped the Lady Bears to a commanding 20-10 lead late in game one.

Able to withstand a pair of Lady Bearcat service runs, Bland held on to take game one of the match.

Unable to dig themselves out of a 20-1 hole in game two, Bland saw Hermann take the second set in spite of Marsee serving 12 points in a row with six of them being aces.

Leading 8-7 early in game three,

Makayla Jones took full advantage of her turn serving scoring Bland’s next seven points for a 15-7 lead.

Later in the set, a pair of Rashel Cox aces and an Alexis Stockton ace help Bland capture game three and the match.

After a Highway 89 showdown last night (Tuesday) at Linn, Bland will host Bourbon tomorrow (Thursday) beginning at 5 p.m., before the seventh-grade Lady Bears trek to Bourbon to complete in their B-Team Volleyball Tournament on Saturday, March 12.

It will be a round-robin format with Steelville, Cuba and St. James competing alongside the Lady Bears and host Lady Warhawks.

Bland will begin their portion of the tournament Saturday morning at 9:15 a.m., facing Cuba before turning right around and playing Steelville at 10 a.m.

In that match, Bland will be looking to avenge a three-set loss to the Lady Cardinals from their season opener back on Tuesday, Feb. 22.

Bland will resume round-robin action Saturday at 11:30 a.m., against the host Lady Warhawks before playing their final round-robin match at 1:45 p.m., against St. James.

Matches could begin sooner than their scheduled time if games move ahead of schedule.

If Bland is one of the top two teams following round-robin competition, they will play in the championship match at 4 p.m., at Bourbon.

Originally scheduled to have a nine-day layoff between the Bourbon 7th Grade Tournament and a scheduled game on Monday, March 21 at New Haven, Bland was able to add a game to their schedule due to Bourbon’s 8th Grade Volleyball Tournament being canceled early in the season.

Picking up another Highway 89 opponent, Bland’s Lady Bears will host Chamois’ Lady Pirates on Tuesday, March 15 beginning at 5:30 p.m., with the ‘A’ team game at Bland Middle School.

Bland will have one more home match ending their season on Friday, March 25 facing Owensville in a game that was rescheduled from Thursday, Feb. 24 due to inclement weather.