The Lady Lions traveled a great distance (13 hours) to Springfield, Missouri last weekend to compete in the Springfield Invitational Tournament. Eight total teams were on hand and the tournament kicked-off Friday with pool play. The Lady Lions were in Pool A with 6^th ranked Kentucky Christian University, Central Bible College and Champion Baptist College. First up for the Lady Lions was the 6^th ranked team in the NCCAA Division II Kentucky Christian University. Kentucky Christian came out fast winning the first game 25-14. In the second game the Lady Lions fought hard but came up short losing that game 25-23. Kentucky Christian then took the 3^rd game 25-15 to win the match in three games. Leading the Lions in the match was Treva Nutter (Thedford, NE) with 14 digs, four kills, and three blocks, and Tatiana Alualu (Honolulu, Hi) added 10 digs, nine kills and one block.

            The second game of the day was against the host school Central Bible College. The Lady Lions made this match quick, beating CBC in three games 25-13, 25-18 and 25-5. Helping the Lady Lions in the match was Hannah Kovarik (Thedford, NE) with seven kills, six digs, and 2 blocks. Molly Huusfeldt (Auburn, CA) added 14 assists and four kills.

            The final game of pool play was against Champion Baptist College. The Lady Lions again came out very strong against Champion and made short work of this match. They won in three games 25-12, 25-7 and 25-8. Tatiana Alualu again led the Lady Lions with 12 digs, six kills and one block. The Lady Lions finished second in pool play with a 2-1 record, making them the two seed for their pool. Saturday was tournament play with the Lady Lions the #2 seed of Pool A matched up against Baptist Bible College #3 seed of Pool B in the quarterfinals.

            In the quarterfinals the Lady Lions would come out strong again winning the first two games of the match 25- 13 and 25-17. They then came up just short in the third game 22-25 and Baptist Bible College was showing signs of life now down only two games to one, but the Lady Lions picked up the intensity and finished the match off with a 25-15 win in the 4^th game to win the match 3-1. Sophomore Kylie Flemmer (Beuhlah, ND) helped the Lady Lions to victory with 16 assists, 14 digs, two kills, and one block. Senior Jessie Wagler (Dallas, TX) added nine digs and six aces. The win advanced the Lady Lions to the semi-finals against the #1 seed of Pool B, NCCAA Division I Southwestern Christian College.

            The Lady Lions would start the semi-final match off with a close win 25-22. They then followed it up with a convincing 25-11 win in game two. With the Lady Lions up 2-0 Southwestern would fight back in the next two matches winning 25-17 and 25-14 to force a 5^th game. The 5^th and final game of the match was won decisively 15-6 by the Lady Lions to propel them into the championship game. Freshmen Treva Nutter (16 digs, 13 kills and two blocks) and Hannah Kovarik (15 digs, 12 kills and one block) both helped the Lady Lions to victor. Sophomore Tatiana Alualu also had a good match with 23 digs and 10 kills.

            In the championship game it was a rematch between 6^th ranked Kentucky Christian University and the Lady Lions. After losing to KCU in three games on Friday the Lady Lions came out with some intensity and fought hard to win the first game 25-23. That was the first game Kentucky Christian had lost all weekend. The Lady Lions would battle hard in the next game only to come up short 18-25. KCU then would go on in games three and four to finish off the match winning 25-16 in both games. In the match Treva Nutter led the Lady Lions with 21 digs, 16 kills, two blocks and two aces and Tatiana Alualu had 23 digs, seven kills and three blocks. The Lady Lions took home the second place trophy and two players were named to the All Tournament Team, Sophomore Tatiana Alualu (Honolulu, HI) and Freshman Treva Nutter (Thedford, NE).  The next game for the Lady Lions is Tuesday September 20^th against Mayville State University in Mayville, ND. The match starts at 7:00pm.