CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. -- It's early in the season, there are still kinks to work out and, for some teams staying busy at early-season tournaments, there are already bumps and bruises for which to be accounted.
But on Thursday night, Dexter walked in the door at the Notre Dame VolleyballFest and announced it's gunning to defend its tournament title from a year ago.
The Bearcats never dominated, but did enough to finish atop Pool A, defeating Perryville 25-21, 25-18, 13-15 and Advance 25-17, 25-22, 15-13 to go 5-1 in round-robin action at Notre Dame Regional High School.
The Pirates edged the Hornets 25-22, 25-18, 13-15 to finish second in the pool at 3-3, while Advance went 1-5 to finish third.
The top two seeds in the pool advance to the Gold Bracket on Saturday, while the third-place team moves into the Silver Bracket.
The standings were based on total set records, and all matches featured three sets, with the third being played to 15 points.
Pool B will be contested today.
In the meantime, Dexter (6-4) will wait to see what the road to another Volleyball Fest title will look like.
"We walk in and we want to come in playing and doing well," Dexter coach Carmen Morgan said. "It's early. It's early for every team out here. So we always see things. This is one of our goals -- we want to win this tournament. But as much as anything, we want to clean up some issues. In October, there's a place we need to be, so we're really looking to get to that point."
For the Bearcats, Thursday was an up-and-down performance but still a solid building block.
Coming off a tough St. Francis Borgia Tournament earlier in the week, Morgan cited early season wear-and-tear as a factor.
District rival Perryville (4-2), which saw its season ended by the Bearcats in the Class 3 District 1 title match last season, is dealing with some of those same things during a busy stretch, and it was the Pirates who succumbed the most in the night's opening matchup.
"(We were) lacking a little get-up-and-go," said Perryville coach Cindi Cissell, in her first-year helming the program. "You know, it's been a long week. Tonight's our third night in a row, and two games (tonight). It's the beginning of a long, busy time. They'll be all right."
Dexter held Perryville off in the opening game, was able to win by a slightly more comfortable margin in the second and appeared poised to take the final set, as the Bearcats led 12-9. But Pirates outside hitter Camryn Baer strung together a series of big hits to spark her side, which took the final four points of the set to swing to a 15-13 victory.
Hannah Thurmon had nine kills in the match for Dexter, while Bailee Williams picked up 15 assists.
Hannah Layton led Perryville with seven kills while Taylor Weber and Sydney Spears each had eight assists.
Against Adavance, Dexter started quickly to the tune of a 13-6 lead, held off as some strong net play by Schrader helped the Hornets pull closer and then sealed the deal with a strong finish that was capped by a set-sealing kill by Thurmon for a 25-17 result.
The Hornets gave Dexter everything it could handle in the second set, even taking a 22-21 lead, but three straight attacks by Addie Kruse got the Bearcats over the edge and the 25-22 final clinched Dexter's top spot in the Pool A.
The final set was much like the second, with Advance getting an ace from Curtis to go up 11-9 before an ace by Kruse tied things at 11. The game remained locked up at 13-all, but a couple of mistakes by the Hornets saw the Bearcats through to the win.
Thurmon racked up 11 kills and three blocks against the Hornets, Williams had 15 assists and Kruse and Megan Trout each pulled out 12 digs.
"You know what? We played really well at times and other times we didn't," Morgan said. "Usually it was when we quit hitting the ball that we struggled. But, on the whole, I thought we served well and played pretty good defense, but there were moments. They quit hitting the ball and let teams get up on us. We have to be aggressive all the time. But you know what? Perryville and Advance are both two good teams, so I wasn't unhappy with the way we came out."
Pool B, contested today, features host Notre Dame, St. Vincent, Bernie and Ste. Genevieve.
Dexter will play the second-place Pool B team in a Gold Bracket semifinal at noon Saturday.