Eighth grade volleyball coach Cindy Fenske believed she had a special group of girls coming into the season. That’s still true, even without a championship at the Central Ozark Conference tournament to wrap up their time together.
“I don’t think (we) accomplished everything I wanted to accomplish,” Fenske says. “However, as a team…they got to where they needed to be.”
The Lady Tigers were seeded 5th going into the COC Tournament, but pulled enough upsets along the way to finish 3rd in their final weekend of the season. Fenske says the finish is a “great testament to how these girls came together.”
The strong finish gained more importance for the Lady Tigers because Fenske pointed out that, because of the nature of high school sports, it was the last time they would all be on the volleyball court together. Starting next year, some of them will play other sports–softball, cross country, tennis, or golf.
“The last two weeks of the season, every game… I (said) ‘Girls, this it the last time this is going to be this way. You are never going to get to do this ever again,’ Fenske says. “They all got emotional at that point, and every game afterwards, you could see it in their eyes. They knew that this wasn’t going to happen again and that this was very special.”
AJ Fenske and Ella Riggs helped set up the Lady Tigers’ offense with 182 assists between them. Riggs had 73 of her digs in the COC tournament.
Parker Rogers led the team in serve percentage, at 97%. Makaylee Doza led the defense with 157 digs on the year. Fenske led the team in kills (92), blocks (13), and service aces (40).
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