Two days removed from defeating Bland in three sets to open the season, Jamie Ridenhour’s Owensville eighth-grade Dutchgirl volleyball team looked to open the tournament portion of their schedule by bringing home hardware from Bourbon.

Placing second in their pool, Owensville advanced to a semifinal showdown with Plato’s Lady Eagles.

Sweeping Plato 25-15 and 25-14, Ridenhour’s Dutchgirls earned another shot at Sullivan in the championship match after splitting their pool match earlier in the day.

Owensville won the first set 20-17 while Sullivan took the second set 20-12 giving them the pool title.

In the championship match, the Dutchgirls only needed two sets to bring home the championship plaque defeating Sullivan 25-17 and 25-14.

Owensville’s other pool match at Bourbon saw them sweep Cuba’s Lady Wildcats 20-10 and 20-14.

Prior to their tournament title at Bourbon, the Dutchgirls opened their season last Thursday welcoming Bland’s Lady Bears from the western end of Gasconade County to Owensville Elementary School for a Highway 28 volleyball showdown.

Owensville looked to complete the sweep after seeing their seventh-grade counterparts win their match in three sets 25-13, 20-25 and 15-8.

Taking the first 25-8, Ridenhour’s Dutchgirls looked to end the match in two sets.

Bland had other ideas stealing the second set 25-23 forcing a third-and-deciding set.

OMS nearly saw the Lady Bears leave OES with a victory before killing off six match points.

Tying the match at 15-15 on a Bland service error, Allysan Gooch served up a pair of aces to give the Dutchgirls game three and the match 25-8, 23-25 and 17-15.

Game one saw an early tussle with the lead exchanging hands four times.

Leading 6-5, Owensvile’s Makensy Pigg took her turn behind the service line.

Scoring the next six points, Pigg helped the Dutchgirls to a 12-5 lead midway through the first set.

Two service points from Elise McFalls bumped OMS’ lead to 15-6.

Still ahead 17-8, Gooch served the final eight points giving Owensville game one over Bland.

Game two was another back-and-forth affair early between the Dutchgirls and Lady Bears.

Five ties and six lead changes later, a pair of Payton Harness aces put OMS in front 8-6.

Two more services points from Hannah Nelson helped the Dutchgirls lead 11-8 near the midway point of game two.

Errors usually lead to points and that was the case for Bland.

Taylor Tungate turned a Dutchgirl error into three service ponts and a 12-11 lead for the Lady Bears.

Tied at 12-12, two Ayla Schmanke service points put Owensville back in front 14-12.

Missing a serve that tied game two at 15-15 gave Bland’s Tegan Trainer a chance at three service points and a 17-15 Lady Bear lead.

Alexus Nagel then turned a Bland service error into three points and a 19-17 Dutchgirl lead.

Leading 21-20, Owensville saw Bland’s Jules Devine serve the next four points leaving them trailing 24-21 before the Lady Bears forced a third set taking game two 25-23.

Opening the third set with the serve, OMS could not take advantage being called for a net violation.

Mea Jones served the next two points giving Bland a 3-0 lead early in the third set.

From there, Owensville trailed throughout the majority of the third set until they scored eight of the final nine points taking game three and the match 25-8, 23-25 and 17-15.

After matches last night (Tuesday), tomorrow (Thursday) against Hermann and Friday against St. James, Nolting’s seventh-grade Dutchgirl spikers will get their turn at bringing home tournament hardware this weekend.

Competing Saturday in the Steelville Seventh Grade Volleyball Tournament, Owensville will be in Pool B with Viburnum, St. James and Linn.

Pool volleyball will start for OMS at 9 a.m., against Viburnum followed by a 10:30 a.m., match against St. James barely 24 hours after playing them in a daytime match at Owensville High School Friday afternoon.

They will conclude pool play at 12:15 p.m., against Linn.

A top-two finish in pool play will move them into bracket action at either 1:45 or 2:45 p.m., with the third-place match at 3:45 p.m., and the championship match at 4:45 p.m.

Following the Steelville Tournament, Owensville will have matches early next week on Monday at Bourbon and next Tuedsay at home against St. Clair’s Lady Bulldogs.

Both matches next week will start at 5:30 p.m., with seventh-grade action.