ADVANCE -- The top two seeds experienced little difficulty in the quarterfinals of the SCAA Volleyball Tournament on Thursday at Advance High School.
However, the third and fourth seeds had to withstand second-set challenges to advance to the semifinals.
Top-seed Advance beat (8) Bell City 25-10, 25-6; (2) Dexter overpowered (7) Richland 25-5, 25-8; (3) Bernie defeated (6) Woodland 25-13, 28-26, and (4) Bloomfield beat (5) Puxico 25-13, 25-22.
In today's semifinals, Advance will meet Bloomfield at 5 p.m. at the high school's main gym, and Dexter will face Bernie at 5 p.m. at the FEMA gymnasium.
"Tomorrow will be a different game," Dexter coach Starla Pulley said of a strong Bernie squad. "The little errors we did make tonight, we're not going to be able to make tomorrow night. We'll have to come out and clean those up and have a little more energy and talking. Our girls know what to do, they have the ability to come out and play strong, and I think they will."
Bloomfield hopes to avenge a 25-12, 25-13 regular-season loss to Advance.
"We're ready," Bloomfield coach Haley Silman said. "The girls have been wanting to play Advance again. Hopefully, we'll come out playing like we did in that first set (Thursday) tomorrow night."
The championship game will follow at 7 p.m. at the main gym.
Dexter vs. Richland
The Bearcats (13-7-3) scored nine of the first 11 points and followed with a 15-o run on the serve of Dulcie Pullen in the first set against Richland. Pullen had two aces during that stretch.
Mckenzie Yount served up a 14-0 run in the second set to blow open a close game. Yount had three aces during a run that gave the Bearcats an 18-3 lead.
Dexter used the match to work out some kinks in anticipation of the semifinal round.
"We just tried to work on when we get a free ball, to try to run a quick offense and try to make a play," Pulley said. "(We're) trying to get them to stay focused (and) trying to get them to move and do what they have to do to take care of the ball."
Blair Rogers paced Dexter with six kills, Chloe Thurmon had five and Maycie Martin and Alexa Werneck had two each.
Natalie Sitze had a team-high five digs, and Thurmon had a club-best three blocks. Shelby Bishop and Pullen had eight assists each.
Bailee Hux led Richland with four kills, and Lillie Sherfield had two.
Bloomfield vs. Puxico
Bloomfield (14-15-1) opened the first set against Puxico with a fierce attack that included two kills by Bailey Below and one by Eva Hester, giving the Wildcats a 6-0 lead.
The Indians sliced their deficit to four points (12-8) on a kill by Sophia Hancock, but Bloomfield earned a set point with a 6-0 run on the serve of Below. She had three aces and a kill, as the Wildcats extended their lead to 24-12.
Lily Warrick closed the set on a kill.
Bloomfield led for most of the second set, although the Indians never trailed by more than five points.
Puxico used a 5-0 run to take its first lead of the match. Kathleen Brotherton, Brittany Croy and Hancock produced kills that helped the Indians take a 12-11 lead.
The Indians' defense fueled their second-set surge.
"You've got to give them credit. Their defense adjusted a little bit better," Silman said. "Our hitters really didn't adjust to them. Then at the end, we started moving the ball a little bit better."
The Indians extended their lead to 14-12 before Bloomfield rallied behind a 9-2 run to go ahead 21-16. They cut their deficit to one point (23-22) before their service error gave Bloomfield match point and Below's kill ended the match.
"We just kind of stopped communicating with each other," Silman said of the second set. "We just let them control the game a little bit. We just did enough to keep ahead, which is frustrating and they know they can do better."
Below had a strong overall match with nine kills, 12 assists, five service aces and one block.
Karsynn Phillips paced the Wildcats with 12 digs, Creylee Huddleston had 10 assists and Hester added five kills.
Bernie vs. Woodland
Bernie (16-6-5) strung together a 12-0 run on the serve of Cassidy Freed to blow open a close first set against Woodland. The lead changed hands three times and the score was tied on six occasions before the Mules' set-changing run.
The teams exchanged points before the Mules closed out the set on one of Logan Mayberry's team-high nine kills.
The lead changed hands nine times and the score was tied on 12 occasions in the second set.
Woodland took a 6-2 lead behind the hitting of Tiana Wiseman, who had four of her match-best 10 kills during that stretch.
The Mules answered with four straight points to tie the match at 6 on a kill by Madison Wooldridge. The teams swapped the lead six times before Bernie scored seven straight points on the serve of Ryleigh Foster. Mayberry and Kelsey Spitzer had one kill and one block apiece, helping the Mules take a 19-13 lead.
The teams traded points before Woodland responded with a 7-0 run on the serve of Hope Green, who had an ace helping Woodland take a 24-23 lead.
Spitzer's last of three blocks tied the score at 24, and Mayberry's kill gave the Mules the first of three match points.
Another kill by Spitzer gave the Mules a 26-25 lead, and Mayberry's final kill gave them a 27-26 advantage.
The Mules closed out the match on the last of Taylor Anthony's six kills.