PUXICO, Mo. -- The Bearcats have swept their regular season Stoddard County Activities Association schedule.
Dexter, which hasn't lost in nearly a month, beat Puxico 25-6, 25-11 to complete its county schedule. Of its SCAA opponents, Bloomfield was the only team to win a set against the Bearcats.
"Sometimes you come out and you don't stay focused and that has been a problem for us. But I felt like our focus was much better tonight. We did pretty well," Dexter coach Carmen Morgan said.
Dexter (16-4) has won 14 games in a row and hasn't lost since traveling to Farmington on Aug. 28. The Bearcats have two games left - against Liberty and Poplar Bluff -- before the SCAA Tournament and four before the district tournament starts on Oct. 16.
"I'm excited to go over there and play Liberty. We'll see how we fare in that. And Poplar Bluff, we'll have to be ready for that one," Morgan said. "From here on out, we don't have, what I call, easy games. Every game we're going to have to be on it. That's what you want going into districts. You want to have tough matches."
Hannah Thurmon led Dexter with six kills against Puxico. Bailee Williams had 11 assists and a trio of Bearcats had two digs each.
Dexter jumped out to a 14-2 lead in the opening set as Puxico tried to build intensity.
"Sometimes we need a little pep in our step. We started out a little slow, we started coming back but it was a little prolonged. If we would have come out with that hype and that motivation, we would have really changed things for us," Puxico coach Hilary Wight said. "There's a lot of times where I watch them do things, and they have what it takes. Sometimes we really need to find a way to know we have what it takes."
Sophia Hancock put down a kill for Puxico before Dexter went on an eight point run that featured three straight aces by Addie Kruse. Blair Rodgers put down the set winning kill.
Puxico (1-8-2), which was using a new rotation with about two hours worth of practice, gave Dexter more trouble in the opening points of the second set.
"I was pretty proud of our defense. We played them pretty tough on defense. There were a couple of errors that we had on shifting," Wight said.
Hancock and Faith Oliver got kills and the Lady Indians trailed 8-5, but like the first set, had a hard time finding that sixth point.
Dexter went on another eight point run to take a double digit lead. Alexa Werneck came off the bench and had all three of her kills during the run and finished second in kills on the team.
Puxico found some extra energy after Hancock had back-to-back blocks on the same point, with the second one hitting the floor. She followed that play with a kill, but the Indians were still down by 10 points and never got closer than nine down the stretch.
Dexter closed out the match with a 6-1 run and Rodgers got the final kill when her attack off the block was dug, zoomed high into the air, ricocheted off the rafters and well out of bounds.
"Our sets were really tight tonight on the net. They got a couple of good hits, they got a block on us, that kind of gave them a little boost," Morgan said.
Morgan put in several subs in the second set and got digs from seven different players and kills from six different Bearcats. Werneck highlighted the depth with three kills, three assists and two digs. She finished with a .400 hitting percentage, second on the team behind Thurmon.
"I was pleased with them. I've got a lot of defensive girls on the bench," Morgan said of the subs. "I want everybody ready. I'm still looking to see who can pass and play the defensive end. I'm always looking for someone to make a good pass."