The varsity volleyball team took first place at Saturday’s Cuba tournament. Members of the team are (front row, from left) Rachel Stice, Mariah Zeiss, Ashlyn Sherman, Emily Whittaker, Mykenzie Livesay, manager Laura Sarles, Lela Chambers, Sierra Zeiss, Reese Weber, Megan Hammonds, Kourtney Carey, Erin Gaddis and manager Rachel Hajek.

The Steelville High School varsity volleyball team won the championship in the Cuba tournament Saturday. The win came just four days after the Lady Cardinals fell to Cuba in Gasconade Valley Conference play.

    The Lady Cards advanced out of pool play Saturday by winning four of their six sets. The Steelville girls split with Viburnum, 25-21 and 20-25, beat Bourbon 25-22 and 25-24, and split with Crystal City 24-25 and 25-17.
    In bracket play, the Lady Cardinals defeated the Cuba JV 25-14 and 25-14 to advance to the semifinals against St. James. In that match, Steelville lost the first set 21-25, but won the second set 25-12 to advance on aggregate score.
    On the other side of the bracket, Grandview defeated Cuba and Viburnum beat Bourbon in the quarterfinals. In the semifinals, Viburnum defeated Grandview. Then in the championship match, Steelville defeated Viburnum 25-19 and 26-24.
    For the tournament, Emily Whittaker led the team with 35 kills, while Kourtney Carey had 19. Sierra Zeiss had 16 kills, Mariah Zeiss 13, Ashlyn Sherman 10 and Megan Hammonds two.
    Lela Chambers led Steelville with 32 ace serves. M. Zeiss had three and S. Zeiss, Carey and Whittaker each had two. Chambers also led the team with 35 assists, while M. Zeiss had 23.
    M. Zeiss had 50 digs in the tourney, while Carey had 23, Chambers 18, Whittaker 15, Sherman 15, Reese Weber 12 and S. Zeiss nine. In serve receptions, M. Zeiss led Steelville with 35, followed by Chambers with 21, Whittaker 20, Carey 18, Sherman 17, Weber 15 and S. Zeiss 10.
    S. Zeiss led the team with three blocks for a point, while Whittaker had one. Whittaker had 13 total blocks in the tourney, followed by M. Zeiss had five, Sherman three and S. Zeiss four.
    The Lady Cardinals hosted Cuba on September 11 in the annual Paint It Pink games to raise money in the fight against breast cancer. Cuba won both matches.
    The junior varsity teams played a thrilling three-set match with Cuba winning 25-14, 21-25 and 28-26. Rachel Stice and Erin Gaddis led Steelville with four ace serves each, while Kaitlin Rivera had two and Hammonds and Paige Cottrell each had one.
    Rivera had nine good serve receptions, while Stice had six, Hammonds 10, Cottrell three, Gaddis 13 and Melanie Perkins 16. Rivera had six kills, Stice four, Hammonds one and Perkins two. Gaddis had 11 assists and Stice had one block.
    Cuba won the varsity match 25-23 and 25-23. Carey led Steelville with six kills, while M. Zeiss had four, Whittaker two and S. Zeiss and Sherman one each.
    Chambers had seven assists, Z. Zeiss, Carey and M. Zeiss one ace and Whittaker one block. Whittaker and M. Zeiss had seven digs, Sherman and Carey four each, Weber three and S. Zeiss and Chambers two each.
    The Lady Cardinals will be back in action Friday when they play in Belle at 6 p.m. They will also host Viburnum at 6 p.m. Monday.