CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. -- Two days after it split sets with Notre Dame in pool play, the Poplar Bluff volleyball team looked short on answers against the same opponent.
The Mules couldn't hang with the Bulldogs, letting things get away midset as they were swept 25-16, 25-13 in a SEMO Conference Tournament semifinal on Thursday night.
After taking a set from Notre Dame (21-9-4) on Tuesday, Poplar Bluff (21-11-1) was left disappointed when it mattered most -- with a berth in the final on the line.
"That's been us all season long," Poplar Bluff coach Amanda Lance said. "Every game we've lost, we've had the ability to win. We've got to figure out what the difference (is), and we have four days to figure that out before districts on Monday."
The Mules traded blows early in the first set, leaving things knotted at 4, but then gave up a five-point swing that build a lead the Bulldogs never relinquished.
Poplar Bluff was able to close the gap to four points, 15-11, on a kill by Sophie Rowland, but every time the Mules found a way to put the ball on the floor on the other side of the net, they suffered lapses that dug a deeper hole.
"You know, we came out and the girls were excited and we were playing hard and we were keeping it pretty close," Lance said. "Then our ball control, it just wasn't on tonight. They had better ball control, so we'd get the ball over from out of system and then they'd just give it to us right back and we couldn't control it. They just kept giving it to us and we were making errors on our side. It goes back to basic ball control on our part."
The Mules' last point of the game came on a Hannah Vaughn tip that made things 23-16, but the Bulldogs closed things out, with a hitting error by Poplar Bluff as the final straw.
The second set played out in similar fashion.
With Notre Dame up 4-0, Poplar Bluff reeled off four straight points tying things at 4 again.
But, again, the Mules let things get away at that point.
The Bulldogs went on a five-point run, capped by a pair of aces by Alexa Fisher, to take a 10-4 advantage and pull away from there.
"Honestly, I feel like that's the calmest that we've played," Notre Dame coach Meredith Brinkmeyer said. "It didn't seem anything rattled us...there was just an overall calming sense. They blocked us a couple of times, but we didn't let that faze us at all."
Earlier in the day, Poplar Bluff defeated Kennett 25-19, 25-18 in a quarterfinal to advance to the match with Notre Dame.
The Mules had finished as the third seed out of the North Division in Tuesday's pool play.
"We're kind of up and down right now, and it's not a good time to be up and down," Lance said."Tonight, I think we're 100 percent capable of playing with (these) teams, but they showed up and we didn't."