Jerry Jarrell photo Bernie's Sarah Deason stretches for the dig during Thursday night's SCAA conference game at Dexter against the Lady Bearcats. Bernie couldn't produce enough of this type of play as Dexter rolled to a 25-17, 25-12 victory.

"This was embarrassing," is how Bernie coach Jeff Rodgers responded after Dexter rolled to a surprisingly easy, 25-17, 25-12, varsity win after the Lady Bearcats staged a Game 3 rally in the junior varsity game for a, 25-23, 25-17, 25-23, win and the sweep of their SCAA rivals to the south Thursday at home.

"Our passing was horrendous," Rodgers stated. " We rely on one player to do all of our hitting and blocking, and that won't cut it at the varsity level. We're not very good right now. This is not a good practice team and it's beginning to show up.

"Kristin Eaves was not herself at all (kidney infection) but battled as hard as she could and did a good job," Rodgers continued. "But that is no excuse, we just got it handed to us. We may have to look at making some changes in our line-up. We're not getting the job done. We'll see how our players respond to these last couple of weeks. We can feel sorry for ourselves or we can suck it up and start working in practice and in games. We still have a lot more games and can still have a good season. But it's up to them."

Eaves led the Lady Mules with five kills and 12 blocks, including five solo, but it wasn't enough to hold off a Dexter team that put together a "complete match," according o Dexter coach Kris Vandeven.

"We are extremely proud of the girls tonight (Thursday)," Vandeven said. "We have been striving to keep the intensity up through a complete match, and we succeeded at that tonight. The win was a total team effort; all seven of the girls contributed to the win. We always have a friendly rivalry with Bernie, so I'm glad things went our way tonight."

Dexter only suits up seven varsity players, and all contributed to the win that kept the Lady Bearcats undefeated in SCAA play at 3-0 and improved the teams overall record to 8-3-1.

Jessica Satterfield and Cathryn Heil combined for 16 kills, with nine and seven, respectively. Heil led the team in digs with eight, while Satterfield was tops in assists with 12.

Abbie Warren (1 kill, 1 ace) joined Heil with four blocks, while Kayla Joyner (1 block, 1 assist) was charted with nine digs, Brittany Bedford was credited with two aces and five digs. Elisha Flanigan had one kill, two digs and two blocks, while McKenzie Mitchell contributed three kills, one block and two assists.

Dexter pulled away in the first game with a 13-4 run with the game tied at 9-all for a 22-13 lead. Dexter coasted home with the win, then jumped to quick lead in the second game and continued to build on that advantage with little resistance from Bernie to coast home with the 25-12 decision.

"I was extremely disappointed in both teams' (varsity and junior varsity) efforts tonight," Rodgers commented. " If we would have shown any sort of fire in the JV game, we would have won going away. If you can't get up for your biggest rival, you've got problems. We had a 16-10 in the 3rd game (junior varsity) and just made a series of silly mistakes. Our serve receive cost us the match."

After splitting the first two game in the jayvee contest, and Bernie up 16-10, Dexter rallied with six-straight point to tie it up at 16-all. The game was tied four times down the stretch (19-all, 21-all, 22-all and 23-all) before a Bernie service error moved Dexter to match point before Madison Pixley's kill attempts dropped to the court for the winner after deflecting off a Bernie block attempt.

Dexter jayvee team improved to 6-1 overall, 2-1 in conference play. Bernie's varsity record now stands at 3-7-1, 0-2, while the jayvee squad in now 6-3-1, 0-1.

Dexter will next be in action Monday when they will be on the road against the Woodland Lady Cardinals. Bernie's next action will be also be Monday when it will host Poplar Bluff.