By Greg Perkins The Lady Wildcats finished up a successful week on the courts, winning two power point matches, then placing second at the Spiker Classic volleyball tournament played in Eagar on Saturday. Thursday’s road match at St. Michaels saw the Lady Cats overcome a small gym with a low ceiling to de-feat the Lady Cardinals in three straight games, 25-17, 25-9 and 25-20. On Friday Joseph City was in Heber facing the Lady Mustangs not only for a win, but for the “gold volley-ball,” as well. “Even though we faced them just a week ago, I was still nervous playing them on their home court. They have a strong tradition and are well coached,” said Coach Kent Baldwin. The Lady Wildcats again won the match in three games, 25-15, 25-14 and 25-8, claiming the annual tro-phy. The Gold Ball award is a tradition started by former coach Darrel Mosier over 20 years ago. It is awarded to the team with the winning scores after both yearly matches are played. With the win the Lady Wildcats re-turn the ball to Joseph City after Mogollon has held it the past two seasons. Hitting the road early Saturday morning to compete in the Spiker Classic, Joseph City took care of Valley Sanders 21-11 and 19-16 in pool play. In their second pool play match, the Lady Cats downed Chinle 21-10 and 21-13. The host team Round Valley was the opponent in the third pool play matchup. Joseph City won the first game 21-17, then the Lady Elks were ahead in game two 16-8 when the time limit expired. In their fourth and final pool play match they faced St. Johns. Again the Lady Cats won the first game 21-18 and were lead-ing in the second 15-10 when time expired. Due to their split with Round Valley the Lady Cats were seeded into the bracket portion of the tournament as the second overall seed. Their first opponent was again Chinle and again they handled their namesake in two games, 25-18 and 25-20. That win moved them into a semi-final matchup with Round Valley. Joseph City fell to the Lady Elks in the first game 25-22, then bounced back to win the second game 25-10, forcing game three. Playing game three only to eleven points the Wildcats dropped the hard fought contest, 11-10. That loss dropped them into the loser’s bracket, where they faced St. Johns. Despite some early serving woes, the Lady Cats took down the Lady Redskins in three close games, 21-25, 25-18 and 11-10. That win put them into the championship match, where they met up with Round Valley for the third time of the day. Joseph City fought hard and came from behind to win the first game 27-25. Falling behind again in the second game the Lady Cats battled tough, but came up just short losing it 26-24 and forcing a decisive third game. Round Valley took care of things in the final game, winning the match and the tournament 25-19. “They had been cheering against us in our other matches, so we took things a little personal. Unfortunately we weren’t quite able to get the win. After three straight days of volleyball on the road, we were tired and spent. I was proud of the way this team played in the past three days,” concluded Coach Baldwin. After traveling to Sanders on Tuesday, the Lady Cats will host a nine-team tournament on Friday and Saturday, Sept. 21 and 22. Friday afternoon will be pool play and Saturday will feature a double elimination bracket format.