The Boonville Lady Pirates volleyball team found out last night in the Class 3 District 9 Tournament at Versailles that it’s harder to hold on to the No. 1 seed after getting there.

While knocking off the Fulton Hornets last year in the district championship, the Lady Pirates had to get through the Versailles Tigers again in the semifinals last night. But after dispersing Versailles in two games 25-9 and 25-17, Boonville had another rematch against Fulton, who beat Eldon in three games 25-17, 21-25 and 26-24, in the championship game later that night.

Of course this turned out to be another three-game contest as the Lady Hornets came out and snatched Game 1 from Boonville 25-23. However, in the end, the Lady Pirates were just too tough down the stretch by winning the next-two games against Fulton 25-17 and 25-23 to capture its second straight district title.

Boonville, 20-7-2 overall, will play Republic (22-10-2) in the sectional round of the state playoffs at Marshfield High School starting at 3 p.m. In the second game, East Newton (27-3-1) will take on Logan-Rogersville (24-6-3) in the other sectional game at 4:30 p.m. The winners of the two sectional games will then play in the quarterfinal round later that night at 6.

Read Thursday's Boonville Daily News for the rest of the story.