Against Cottey, East Central won, 25-17, 25-15. In the Northeastern Oklahoma A&M match, the Lady Falcons won 25-22, 25-14. And against Longview, East Central defeated its rival, 25-23, 25-17.

"Going into the preregional tournament, you always want to represent and get the job done," said East Central Head Coach Brad Bruns. "We really want the first seed in the region. I really was pleased with how the girls played. There were some good things that happened. We ran the offense very well, our blocking was pretty good, serve receive was great and any time we needed someone off the bench, they went into the game and did a great job. Overall, I'm very pleased. Any time you can beat Longview, our regional foe, I've got to be happy about the win. They're always a good team and they're our hurdle every year."

The Lady Falcons need to repeat earlier results against St. Louis Community College-Meramec and St. Louis Community College-Florissant Valley to seal up the top seed. East Central did not play either of those teams Saturday, but will play them again in upcoming weeks.

The Lady Falcons play SLCC-Florissant Valley Oct. 28 at the Midwest Community College Athletic Conference Finale in Hillsboro. That match also counts in the region/district standings.

In Saturday's event, the three teams from the eastern side of the region/district, played the three teams from the western side to help formulate the seedings for the Region/District Championships, being held at Longview in Lee's Summit Nov. 6-7. The top two teams receive byes on the opening day of the tournament.

In other results, Longview beat both SLCC schools, topping Meramec, 25-14, 25-22, and Flo Valley, 25-18, 25-16.

Northeastern Oklahoma A&M won its other two matches, beating SLCC-Flo Valley, 25-9, 25-17, and SLCC-Meramec, 25-16, 20-25, 15-9.

Meramec beat Cottey, 25-13, 25-8, and Flo Valley beat Cottey, 25-13, 20-25, 15-10.

Longview

Determined and motivated, the Lady Falcons went out to try to beat Longview for the first time since last November, when the Lady Falcons won the 2008 Region/District Tournament. Longview had beaten East Central earlier this season in a five-game match at the Johnson County Tournament.

East Central came out on fire and took an 18-8 lead on an ace by freshman Kasey Kirchhofer (Hermann). However, Longview came back and tied it late in the contest.

"That's the only thing that's a concern right now," Bruns said. "We're still tweaking our mental game a little bit. We were up by eight or nine points. We can't stop. We've got to put the pedal to the metal and make sure we finish games and don't let teams hang around. We're working on the mental aspect right now. We work on it every day in practice."

The Lady Falcons were able to regroup, refocus and reach game point with freshman Aleisha Joyce (Carthage) putting down a kill. An error gave the Lady Falcons the first game.

In the second game, East Central again took a big lead, but had some scary moments when Kirchhofer and sophomore Stephanie Heim (Logan-Rogersville) collided. Heim came out of the match with an ankle injury, but was able to return and help the Lady Falcons win.

Freshman Natalie Davis (Lafayette) was huge down the stretch, getting two of her match-high 10 kills to help seal the 25-17 victory. Davis hit .333 in the match and added five block assists.

Joyce, playing opposite of Davis, ended with eight kills, a .533 hitting percentage, two digs and a block assist.

Heim had six kills at a .364 success rate, an ace, 11 digs and one block assist.

Kirchhofer had one kill to go with 24 set assists, one ace, six digs, a solo block and four block assists.

Also getting kills were sophomore Julie Ohlms (Lutheran St. Charles, State Fair Community College) with two and freshman Ashley Eggering (Winfield) with one.

Ohlms, Eggering and sophomore Nicole Mannino (Incarnate Word Academy) also added aces.

Freshman Kara Bowman (St. Dominic) ended with nine digs. Ohlms, Eggering and freshman Caitlin Rutledge (Eminence) each had five digs. Mannino had four. Ohlms also had a block assist.

Bruns used 11 of his 12 players in the match. Also playing were Kelli Sans Souci (Bourbon) and Samantha Walch (Warrenton). Walch played for Heim while she tried to recover from her injury.

Heim will miss the Meramec match this week due to her injury.

NEO

The Lady Falcons struggled in the first game despite taking an early lead. The Lady Falcons were tied late in the game, but rallied to win it, 25-22.

In the second game, East Central cruised, 25-12.

Davis led the team in kills with six. She also led the team with a .625 hitting percentage.

Ohlms ended with five kills, Joyce (.375) and Mannino (.333) each had four kills. Heim added two kills.

Kirchhofer led the team with 18 assists. Heim had two.

East Central had nine service aces. Ohlms led the team with three. Heim and Bowman each had two while Mannino and Joyce had one each.

Bowman led the team with eight digs. Kirchhofer had six. Heim and Ohlms had three each. Mannino, Eggering and Rutledge each had two and Joyce had one. Mannino and Joyce each had one block assist.

Cottey

The Lady Falcons warmed up with a two-game win over Cottey, 25-17, 25-17. East Central only struggled a bit early in the first game, but came back to take the lead at 6-5.

Ohlms led the team with six kills and hit .400. Joyce had five kills at a .500 rate. Heim hit .333 with four kills. Davis had three kills while Sans Souci injected some offense off the bench with two kills. Mannino, Eggering and Kirchhofer had one kill each.

Kirchhofer had 18 set assists. Heim, Bowman and Ohlms each served three aces. Sans Souci had one ace.

Heim led the Lady Falcons with eight digs. Bowman had four, Mannino added three and Ohlms, Rutledge, Kirchhofer and Davis each had two.

Joyce had a solo block and an assist. Heim, Kirchhofer and Davis each had one block assist.