Semoball

Unbeaten Gideon defeats Clarkton in championship of Gideon volleyball tournament, Campbell places third

Photo by Dustin Ward, staff
Gideon celebrates winning its own volleyball tournament Saturday afternoon at Gideon High School.

GIDEON - A veteran Gideon Bulldogs volleyball squad is learning how to adapt to lineup changes quickly and utilize its depth to its advantage in 2020.

Photo by Dustin Ward, staff
The Gideon volleyball team (pictured) placed first at the Gideon Invitational Saturday.

“We lost one of our starting middle hitters during PE on Friday,” Gideon volleyball coach Kristen Ashabranner said. “We entered the weekend scattering and trying to figure out what we were going to do. But fortunately we got one of our other middle hitters back that had been out. She has played limited minutes with us this season but we were able to find a way to make things work this weekend.”

Photo by Dustin Ward, staff
The Clarkton volleyball team (pictured) placed second at the Gideon Invtiational Saturday.

Undefeated Gideon capped off another perfect week by taking home the top prize at its own 12-team varsity volleyball tournament Saturday. Gideon beat nearby rival Clarkton 25-15, 25-19 in the title game Saturday afternoon.

Photo by Dustin Ward, staff
The Campbell volleyball team (pictured) placed third at the Gideon Invitational Saturday.

The victory was Gideon’s fifth straight-set win at the tournament. Gideon beat Southland 25-9, 25-8, 25-2 and defeated South Pemiscot 25-10, 25-7, 25-10 in pool play Friday. Gideon continued its success by beating Portageville 25-10, 25-4 in a quarterfinal Saturday morning and knocked off Twin Rivers 25-9, 25-19 in a semifinal Saturday afternoon.

"We are still trying to find the right lineup but anything I asked the girls they did this weekend.” Ashabranner said.

Ashabranner is well aware her squad’s 17-0-1 start is one of the best, if not the greatest start to a season, by her traditionally talented program.

But with a slew of conference games remaining and non-conference games against district rivals Bernie and Campbell on the horizon in coming weeks she didn’t want to think about her squad’s undefeated mark too much.

“I don’t want to jinx that start because you never know who is going to show up on a given night and give you your first loss,” she said. “But our girls work really hard and do anything I ask. We’ve got some pretty good kids we can run in and out when we want to change things up. Hopefully, that will be a strength moving forward.”

Gideon wasn’t the only squad that enjoyed a near perfect tournament. Clarkton, which has also been forced to change its lineup in recent days, beat its first four opponents at the three-day tournament before falling to Gideon in the championship.

Clarkton (14-5-1) beat Cooter 25-16, 25-11, 26-6 and beat Portageville 25-10, 25-18, 25-13 in its pool play games Thursday. Clarkton beat Southland 25-12, 25-8 in a quarterfinal Saturday morning and rallied past Campbell 20-25, 25-19, 25-20 in a semifinal Saturday afternoon.

“We’ve faced some adversity this week,” Clarkton coach Amy Cowart said of her squad’s second-place finish. “We’ve been playing with a injured setter and lost one of our other starters after pool play Thursday night. We’ve had to make some adjustments heading into Saturday. Overall, I feel like we did a good job of adjusting to a new lineup today and handling the things that were thrown at us this week. We just struggled to get into our offense and pass the ball to the setter in the championship game against Gideon.”

Campbell (14-6-2) also went 4-1 at the tournament. Campbell beat Risco 25-16, 25-13, 25-22 and defeated Senath-Hornersville 25-13, 25-9, 25-16 in its pool play games Friday. Campbell beat Holcomb 25-21, 25-17 in a quarterfinal Saturday morning and regrouped after dropping its semifinal to Clarkton by beating Twin Rivers 26-24, 25-17 in the third-place game Saturday afternoon.

“I feel like we probably could have played better but I’m proud we finished third,” Campbell coach Amber Hixson said. “Third out of 12 is not bad but I’m always trying to push them to do better. I think they can play at a higher level than they are right now. I also feel like we haven’t peaked yet. We are trying to move some players around and figure some different things out and are keeping our fingers crossed our girls will peak at the right time."


See complete bracket play results below:

BRACKET PLAY RESULTS

QUARTERFINALS

Campbell def. Clarkton 25-21, 25-17

Gideon def. Portageville 25-10, 25-4

Twin Rivers def. Risco 25-18, 25-18

Clarkton def. Southland 25-12, 25-8

SEMIFINALS

Gideon def. Twin Rivers 25-9, 25-19

Clarkton def. Campbell 20-25, 25-19, 25-20

THIRD-PLACE GAME

Campbell def. Twin Rivers 26-24, 25-17

CHAMPIONSHIP

Gideon def. Clarkton 25-15, 25-19

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