The Republic volleyball team overcame a slow start to beat #5 Mountain Grove in straight sets, 25-17, 25-23. Shelby Gordon had seven kills to lead the Lady Tigers, who improved to 2-1.
With Republic trailing 8-4 in the first game, coach Katie Kreimer called a timeout. “We just weren’t being very aggressive. The first two balls of the night fell between players, without effort, without any competitive aggressiveness,” she said. The Tigers responded with a 10-2 run, and jumped out to a 14-10 lead. From there, they never looked back, winning the first game 25-17.
Mountain Grove took an early 6-3 lead in the second game, before the Lady Tigers came back to lead 13-9. From there, Mountain Grove rallied, and the teams stayed even the rest of the way until Republic won the last two points to clinch the victory, 25-23.
Jordan Jones contributed 17 assists for the Lady Tigers. Elle Aston led the defense with seven digs, and Alex Botkin and Nicole Hallam had three blocks apiece for Republic.
The varsity victory made it a clean sweep for Republic. The freshman team won 25-13, 25-15; and the JV team won 25-18, 25-15.
Listen to the postgame interview with Coach Katie Kreimer below.