Before Excelsior Springs and Maryville could focus on their respective district volleyball tournaments this week, they needed to do something else – finish a suspended match.

The Midland Empire Conference schools were in the first set of their bestof- five varsity match Oct. 13 when play was halted because water from a storm that night dripped into the Excelsior Springs High School gym through the ceiling vents, Excelsior Springs coach Cindy Price said.

“That wind was so strong it was blowing them open and it was just raining in,” Price said.

The teams agreed to finish the match the morning of Oct. 17 and resume where play had stopped, with Maryville leading the opening set 14-8. The Spoofhounds went on to win the set 25-10, then took the second set 25-10 and edged the Tigers 2523 in the finale.

It was Maryville coach Hailey Sandfort’s first time to participate in a suspended match.

“Never a rainout for volleyball,” Sandfort said. “That was a new one, for sure.”

Price, however, said it was h…