The Lady Bulldogs swept the field to win the 38th annual Sparta Volleyball Invitational Saturday.  
Sparta downed New Athens in a three set match, 19-25, 25-19, 15-6 for the  invitational championship after advancing out of pool play with wins over Trico 25-17, 25-16 and Dupo 25-15, 25-16.  
A semifinal win over Steeleville 25-16, 25-15 set the championship match as New Athens defeated Trico 25-14, 20-25, 16-14 to play for the title.
“I thought the girls did a nice job all day of staying within themselves, and they really cut down the number of unforced errors,” said Sparta coach Roger Gerlach.  
In the opening win over Trico, the Lady Bulldogs served 47 out of 48 and had a .438 kill percentage. Jannice Edmonson led the team with seven kills. Gabby Gallois added six kills, while Victoria Ward chipped in with 13 assists.  
In set one, nine consecutive service points from Amber Bleem opened the Bulldog lead to 18-6, as they cruised to the first set win 25-17.  
In the second set of that match, the Lady Pioneers opened to a 5-1 advantage, but seven consecutive service points from Heather Breithaupt followed up with an 11 serve run by Gallois put the game away.
In the Dupo match, Gallois led the offense with eight kills, while Mystical Mahnke added five kills. The Lady Bulldogs were 47-for-47 from the service area.
With the two wins in the book, the Bulldogs advanced out of pool play to take on Steeleville in the semifinal match with Sparta coming out on top in a two set win. Gallois and Edmonson combined for 15 kills while Ward and Melissa Renner added 23 assists in the match.
In what proved to be the most exciting match of the day, New Athens took set one from the Lady Bulldogs. With the score tied at 19, New Athens scored the last six unanswered points to take set one 25-19.  
In set two, a very sluggish Lady Bulldogs group managed to regroup after falling behind to make a run from being down 15-12 with another 10-0 run from a Breithaupt service rotation to take a 21-15 lead and win set two 25-19 setting up the decisive third set.  With a 7-6 advantage, Gallois served the last seven points for the championship.
“Throughout the day, we did an excellent job serving. I believe we might have only had two serving errors. We had several runs that happened because of our serving,” Gerlach commented.
Sparta’s overall record stands at 15-10 and will make the trip to league-leading Anna Jonesboro Thursday.
Being named to the all-tournament team were Victoria Ward (Sparta), Jannice Edmonson (Sparta), Gabby Gallois (Sparta), Molly Works (New Athens), Shelby Strackeljahn (New Athens), Ashley Modglin (Trico), Alex Gale (Steeleville), Allanah Renner (Steeleville), Shannon Hood (Dupo) and Kendra Goss (Marissa-Coulterville).