Originally scheduled to end their season tomorrow (Thursday) night on the road at Eugene, Bland’s seventh-grade Lady Bear volleyball team saw their season end back on Saturday, March 14 in the Bourbon 7th Grade Girls Volleyball Tournament.

Competing along with the host Lady Warhawks and the Lady Bears were Steelville, Cuba and St. James.

One could’ve have also called the tournament the Gasconade Valley Conference (GVC) Round Robin Tournament had Viburnum been in the field instead of St. James.

Sweeping Cuba, St. James and Bourbon in pool play, a split with Steelville earned the Lady Bears another shot at the Lady Cardinals in the championship match.

In spite of dropping the match in two sets, Brook Rohrer’s Bland Lady Bears left Crawford County with second-place hardware.

Opening the tournament, Bland swept Cuba taking both sets before their pool showdown with Steelville.

Dropping the first set, the Lady Bears came from behind to take the second set 25-22 scoring the final four points of the set.

During the final pool match that morning, Bland swept Bourbon 25-17 and 25-14 just days after sweeping the Lady Warhawks 27-25 and 25-11 in what turned out to be their final home volleyball match of the season at Bland Middle School back on Thursday, March 12.

In that match at BMS, McKenna Loughridge recorded a kill getting Bland on the board in game one before serving the next nine points giving the Lady Bears a 10-2 lead.

Bourbon came back scoring six of the next eight points trimming Bland’s lead to 12-8.

Overcoming three ties in the final moments of game one, a Trista Kottwitz ace gave the Lady Bears game one over Bourbon 27-25.

In game two, Bland dominated from the opening serve.

Scoring first on a Lady Warhawk service error, Ileana Sullinger stepped behind the serving line looking to help Bland add to their lead.

Seven aces later, the Lady Bears found themselves with an 8-0 lead.

Loughridge served five points in a row later in the set giving Bland a 14-2 lead before going on to win game two and the match 27-25 and 25-11.

In addition to their aforementioned match tomorrow (Thursday) night at Eugene, Bland Lady Bear volleyball saw matches cancelled Thursday, March 19 at home against Hermann in addition to a road match from Monday, March 23 at New Haven due to concerns with the coronavirus that have spread statewide.