Before having to pull out of the Bourbon ‘B’ Team Volleyball Tournament over the weekend, Beki Willis’ Bland Lady Bear volleyball teams saw action in three matches last Monday hosting Hermann, Thursday at Viburnum and Friday hosting Cuba.

Seeing their seventh-grade counterparts sweep the Lady Wildcats 25-20 and 25-14, Bland’s eighth-grade Lady Bears hoped the third time would be the charm after splitting a pool match at Bourbon and losing in two sets on the road just eight days prior to last Friday’s third meeting.

Falling 25-17 in game one, Bland battled Cuba in game two to the tune of 12 lead changes and 12 ties before dropping a heart breaker 27-25 against the Lady Wildcats.

In game one for Bland, Reagan Gehlert had three aces and a kill while Charleigh Elrod served up two aces to go with one kill.

Emrie Fredendall also added an ace for the Lady Bears in game one.

Game two saw Elrod add two more aces and a kill while Gehlert also added a pair of kills giving her three for the match.

During the seventh-grade match between Bland and Cuba, the Lady Bears swept their Gasconade Valley Conference (GVC) foes in two sets by scores of 25-20 and 25-14.

Statistics were not available from that match.

On the road in Viburnum last Thursday night against the Lady Blue Jays, Bland’s 7th grade Lady Bears swept their match in two sets by scores of 25-6 and 25-22 while their eighth-grade counterparts fell to Viburnum 25-16 and 25-18.

Starting their week last Monday with a quasi Gasconade County showdown against Hermann’s Lady Bearcats, Bland took the seventh-grade match in two sets by scores of 25-23 and 25-21 while Hermann claimed the eighth-grade match in two sets over Bland 27-25 and 25-20.

Five straight aces from Annie Newton and four consecutive aces from Lili Willen helped the Lady Bears edge Hermann in game one.

Willen also served the first seven points of game two for the Lady Bears which included three aces.

Two more Willen aces and a Shae Buechter ace later in the set helped Bland hold off Hermann.

Kali Mayfield also had two kills in game one for Bland while Rylee Tinsley had an ace and a kill in game two for the Lady Bears.

Two Bree Butler aces gave Bland an 11-9 lead in game one before numerous errors allowed Hermann to come back and take game one 27-25 in spite of aces from Fredendall and Gehlert.

Game two started off with Bland taking a 3-1 lead on a Gehlert kill and ace before Hermann rallied to leave the Lady Bears trailing 12-6.

A Makenna Norris kill sent Fredendall to serving duty where she had three aces over four points cutting the Lady Bear deficit to 12-11.

Two more Butler aces pulled Bland back to within a point at 18-17 before another Gehlert ace tied game two at 19-19.

Bland then saw Hermann score six of the next seven points ending the match in two sets.

Returning to action tomorrow (Thursday) morning, Bland will host Bourbon’s Lady Warhawks in the annual daytime showdown between the two schools with first serve set for 11:30 a.m., in seventh-grade action.

Bland’s eighth-grade Lady Bears will also compete this Saturday in tournament action at St. James Middle School.

Bland will begin pool play Saturday morning in St. James against the host Lady Tigers at 8:45 a.m., before facing Cuba for the fourth time this season at 9:30 a.m.

After sitting the rest of the morning, Bland will kick off the afternoon portion of pool volleyball facing Hawkins Junior High at 12:30 p.m., before ending their portion of pool play at 1:15 p.m., against Plato’s Lady Eagles.