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St. Joseph nearly took an early exit from its own tournament Thursday.

After reaching last year’s final, the Lady Flyers dropped their opening match to Cuero 21-25, 25-19, 15-7 and then had to battle tough to down Shiner St. Paul 25-22, 25-17 to reach the consolation semifinals where they defeated Gonzales later in the day.

The St. Joseph Flyers advanced to the consolation final on Saturday at 10:30 a.m. against Hallettsville Sacred Heart with a 22-25, 25-19, 15-4 win over Gonzales. Sacred Heart set up the match with a 19-25, 25-22, 15-10 win over Faith Academy.

Ganado reached the championship with a win over Karnes City and will play Cuero which downed Shiner 23-25, 25-20, 15-12.

The Lady Flyers took advantage of some late St. Paul errors in the opening game, before Tori Escamilla, Sarah Tucker and Haley Oliver stepped up big at the service line to lead the Game 2 victory.

St. Paul jumped in front 18-17 on a block by Carissa Sciba and Hannah Kocian, but the Lady Cardinals soon became their own worst enemy. St. Joseph score six of its last eight points on unforced St. Paul errors, including a service error, that finished off the game.

Escamilla got the Lady Flyers going early in Game 2 with a five-point service run that included a kill by Tucker for a 7-3 lead. Tucker then added her own five-point run that included a kill from Brooke Blanton and a block by Kaley Jurica for a 17-12 advantage.

Leading 19-14, Oliver served up an ace and got a kill and a block from Summer Brooks for a four-point run, before another St. Paul error finished off the match.

“It was a lot better effort this time,” Lady Flyers coach Suzanne Valenzuela said.

The Lady Flyers looked a little timid in their opening match against Cuero.

Down 10-9 in the opening game, Kate Tucker served up eight straight points for a 17-10 lead and the Lady Flyers never lost the lead from that point. Sarah Tucker put the game away with a kill.

But the intensity appeared to leave the Lady Flyers from that point and the Lady Gobblers took advantage. The Lady Gobblers picked up their final three points on unforced errors by the Lady Flyers.

Cuero used two unforced errors to open up the final game with a 2-0 lead and never trailed despite the Lady Flyers tying the score twice. Sara Stubblefield finished off the match at 15-7 with a kill.

Faith Academy dropped a hard-fought opening match to Ganado 26-28, 25-15, 16-14 and were playing Sacred Heart for a shot at the consolation championship.

Ganado downed Sacred Heart 25-22, 25-17 to reach one of the championship semifinals where they were to have met Karnes City late Thursday. Karnes City reached the semifinals with a 26-24, 23-25, 15-9 win over Ingleside.

Defending champion Shiner was to meet Cuero in the other semifinal with the winners advancing to Saturday’s 3:30 p.m. championship game.