The Lady Tigers volleyball team pulled off two upsets to win a district championship last week. They were unable to pull off a third, falling to Final Four qualifier Ozark in straight sets Saturday at Willard, 25-9 25-14. After playing some of its best volleyball of the year in the district tournament, Republic struggled to mount an attack against a bigger Ozark front line.
“A lot of teams have fallen victim to Ozark. They are a great team and they know how to win,” says Wright. Ozark defeated Willard in the state quarterfinals to advance to its sixth consecutive Final Four.
Republic ended below .500, the result of a difficult non-conference schedule before their run through the Central Ozark Conference. Wright says she’s proud of her team’s perseverance when the losses mounted to start the season.
“It’s been a brutal schedule, especially early on. That can really wear on you mentally, and these girls have chosen to be positive throughout. They’ve chosen to continue to work hard in practice and build each other up, and that’s what brought us this far,” Wright says.
The Lady Tigers lose five seniors: Mikayla Botkin, Logan Flood, Alexis Ladwig, Madi Lormand, and Brooke Stanfield. But more than any other season since Wright has been at Republic, they will return a core of experienced players next year.
“No one can replace the seniors, but what I love about this team is that we do have a lot of young kids…who are going to step into those roles beautifully,” Wright says.
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