BELL CITY, Mo. -- The Bernie Mules have a slew of offensive weapons at the net.
"I think it helps us," Bernie coach Jason Long said of his squad's offensive depth. "When we pass the ball well and get teams back on their toes it makes it easier for us to move the ball around."
The Mules moved the ball around well from the get-go Tuesday.
Five Mules hitters combined for 26 kills, including 16 in the opening set, to help top-seeded Bernie pound its way past second-seeded Gideon with Risco 25-12, 25-23 in the Class 1 District 2 Tournament Championship at Bell City.
"I thought we played pretty well the first set," Long said. "We limited our errors and passed the ball really well. We had strong attacks, which led to lots of kills. I was hoping we would come out ready to play and we did."
Gideon with Risco took a brief 1-0 lead on a kill by 5-foot, 10-inch, middle hitter Whitney Bixler in the opening set.
Bernie followed with a 15-3 run to move ahead 15-4 and led by at least nine points the remainder of the opening set.
The Mules also jumped ahead early in the second set as they enjoyed leads of 7-2, 12-6, 15-8 and 19-15 before Gideon with Risco scored four straight points to tie things up at 19-19. The second set was also tied at 22 and 23-all before the Mules took the final two points on a setting error and triple block to secure a straight-set victory.
"I was super proud of the way the girls responded in the second set," Gideon with Risco coach Kristen Ashabranner said. "That first set we came out and played super flat. It may have been nerves with us starting four freshmen. We also started the second set a little slow but we got going there at the end and did what we needed to do. We just couldn't get the couple of points we needed to finish it off."
Gideon with Risco's second-set surge was partially fueled by Bixler, who recorded nine of her team-high 14 kills after the first set.
"We are very proud of her," Ashabranner said. "You couldn't ask for a better kid. She's also a phenomenal player. We depended on her throughout the season. She led us in kills every night. She was a great team captain for us."
The Mules elected to resort to a defensive tactic it had used in the regular and send three blockers to the net to guard Bixler's final kill attempt on game point.
"The first time we played Gideon we triple blocked her the whole night out of total respect because she's phenomenal," Long said. "We felt like tonight we didn't want to do that because they are a smart, well-coached team and they would take advantage of us having three blockers on her. But on the last play, we had three of our biggest girls on the front row and sent three blockers to the middle."
Cymber Arnold paced Bernie's offense with eight kills. Madison Wooldridge added six kills. Taylor Anthony added three kills for the Mules. Three other Bernie players had one kill.
"We tried to work on defending from many different angles this week," Ashabranner said. "But they have good hitters and were able to get the momentum and stay on top."
Gideon with Risco finishes its season with a record of 27-5-1. It graduates six seniors off a squad that won the Tri-County Conference Tournament. It also returns a talented group of underclassmen off a JV squad that won its Tri-County Conference Tournament.
"We had a great season," Ashabranner said. "The seniors are good kids. We also have a really good group coming back and we are looking forward to good things in the future. We've just got to continue working hard."
Bernie improves to 20-8-5 with the victory.
"To be quite honest with you this is one of my most satisfying wins," Long said. "This group has learned, even late in the year, to grind and come together. Everybody deals with injuries. You just have to play through it and learn how to deal with the adversity. This group has done a good job with that, which is a tribute to how far they've come since this time last year when we got whipped in a district championship."
Bernie plays a Class 1 sectional at the winner of District 2 on Saturday. No. 3 seeded Holcomb (9-15-4) plays at No. 5 seeded South Pemiscot (9-17-2) in the District 2 championship at 6 p.m. Thursday.
"We are just happy to move on," Long said. "For this group, I think it should just be really exciting. We get to continue playing in a playoff atmosphere. It's just a great opportunity."