Ava to Play Willow Springs in District Volleyball Tournament

October 22, 2020

Doug Berger/Herald Lady Bear Baylan Alexander spiking against a Houston defender.

The Ava Lady Bears have picked up a second seed in the Class 3 District 10 volleyball tournament.

Ava (11-9-2) will open play in the tournament on Monday, Oct. 26, at 6 p.m. in the Mountain Grove arena against number three seed Willow Springs (6-9-1).

Liberty (18-5-4) has the top seed in the tournament and will face the winner of the Salem (2-15-2) and Mountain Grove (0-9) game at 7:30 p.m. on October 26.

The championship game will be played on October 27 at 6 p.m. in Mountain Grove.

In action last week, the Lady Bears picked up a win over Salem, 3-0, on Thursday, but fell to Houston at home, 3-1, on Tuesday. They finished third at the Sparta Invitational tournament on Saturday.

The Lady Bears defeated Salem in three sets, 25-22, 25-23 and 27-25. This brought their conference record to 4-2.

“This was head to head for most of the match, but we always finished strong,” Lady Bears coach Bailey Loge stated.

Earlier in the week against Houston, the Lady Bears took the first set, 26-24. Houston was up 23-19, but the Lady Bears took a 24-23 lead. Houston came back to tie it, but Ava scored the last two points to put the set away.

In the second set, the teams were tied at 22 before Houston took a 23-22 advantage. Ava tied it back up, but Houston scored the final two points to win the set, 25-23.

In the third set, the Lady Tigers scored the final six points to take a 25-19 win.

The final set, saw the teams playing close again, but the Lady Bears could never find a lead and Houston wrapped up the match with a 25-20 win.

“This weekend we competed in the Sparta Invitational. We went 2-2-1 and ended up placing third. We tied with Sparta first, 23-25, then 25-18. Played Fordland next and won 25-17 and 25-10, and lost against Forsyth, 16-25 and 16-25. We moved on as second in our pool and played a first round on bracket play against Miller. We came up short with the score of 15-25 and 17-25. This brought up the third place match to play against Billings. We won this with the scores of 26-24 and 25-15,” Loge stated.