ADVANCE -- The Advance Hornets used an electric start to end Dexter's reign as SCAA Volleyball Tournament champion.
The top-seeded Hornets beat second-seeded Dexter 25-12, 12-25, 25-11 to become the first team in six years other than the Bearcats to win the tournament title.
"Advance is a good team," Dexter coach Starla Pulley said. "They have good defense. They came out and they outhustled us the first game. They went for every ball. They talked. They communicated. We did better the second set, doing what we had to do to win. The third set, we just came out flat. When you start off the game with a hitting error and another error and another error and another error, it (stops) your momentum."
The Hornets won despite missing two starters -- Meadow Morse and Roz Schrader -- who are out with ankle injuries.
"I think the girls just wanted to prove to everybody, you know what, we can play no matter what the makeup of the team is," Advance coach Erin Hoffman said.
The Hornets (27-2-1) went on the attack in the first set, building a 6-0 lead.
"They were swinging, and if they didn't I had to look at them and say keep swinging," Hoffman said.
"I just stood on the sideline with a smile on my face. That's all I could do."
Nyah Wilson had two of her game-high 14 kills during that stretch.
"My setter (Addie Curtis) has figured out how to set her just right to where she can get a good swing on the ball," Hoffman said of Wilson.
Dexter (14-8-3) fought back to cut the Hornets' lead to 9-7 on a block by Chloe Thurmon, but the Hornets scored the next seven points to reassert control of the set. Alyssa Miles had two of her 11 kills during that spurt, helping the Hornets build a 16-7 advantage.
The Bearcats never came closer than eight points the rest of the way, and Advance nearly finished them off with a 6-0 run that gave the team set point at 24-9.
Dexter fought off three set points before the Hornets' Curtis closed out the set with a ball-placement point.
"The first set, we just gave them an open net. 'Here you go,' " Pulley said. "You can't do that. You've got to have big hands, and if you don't have big hands, they're going to dominate. I thought we did a better job of that in the second set."
The Bearcats never trailed in the second set, using a 10-2 run to take a 14-5 lead. Blair Rogers had two kills, Bailey Chamberlain and Thurmon produced blocks and Alexa Werneck had a kill and a service ace during that stretch.
Advance cut its deficit to seven points briefly before the Bearcats scored six of the next eight points to extend their lead to double digits.
Back-to-back kills by Wilson sliced the Bearcats' lead to 20-11, but they closed out the match on a 5-1 run that included two kills by Thurmon and one apiece by Maycie Martin, Dulcie Pullen and Rogers.
The Hornets grabbed a 9-2 lead in the third set, and Dexter never came closer than six points the rest of the way.
Advance scored four of its final five points on kills with Miles' kill ending the match and beginning the Hornets' celebration.
"The third set, we just couldn't get anything going," Pulley said. "It felt like we were back to the first set -- not talking, not moving."
Both teams finished with 31 kills. Martin and Rogers had 10 each, Thurmon had five and Werneck produced three.
Shelby Bishop paced Dexter with 16 assists, and Pullen had 15.
Both teams played solid defense, repeatedly digging up hits to keep rallies alive. Natalie Sitze paced the Bearcats with 35 digs, and Rogers added 28.
"I think they were a little tense," Pulley said of her team. "Sometimes, you play because you're afraid to lose instead of playing to win. Hopefully, we'll learn from this, because we've got tough games from here on out."
The Bearcats advanced to the championship match with a 23-25, 25-13, 25-23 win over third-seeded Bernie in the semifinals. Advance overcame a shaky start to beat fourth-seeded Bloomfield 27-25, 25-5.