After a week of bad news that included two lopsided losses and an injury, Republic got just what it needed in its return to home Thursday: a convincing win. The Lady Tigers swept Mountain Grove in two sets, 25-14, 25-17.
“Obviously, a win is always a good thing. This one is particularly good because we’ve been plagued with injuries like crazy,” said coach Allison Davis. The Lady Tigers lost starter Ella Riggs to injury within the first few moments of their Tuesday match at Springfield Glendale, forcing Davis to come up with a different rotation on the spot.
“The girls were flexible. They tried to do their best, but tonight was our first time after having a whole practice…to practice that rotation,” Davis said. “And I felt like tonight was a good night to practice it even more. This was a great win, especially with having to put in a whole other lineup.”
Despite two consecutive losses before Thursday, though, Davis said her team’s attitude had remained positive.
“When you have a loss like we had on Tuesday, it’s a different feeling going into practice the next day, because you’re unsure about what happened, how is coach going to react to this, how are the players reacting to it? This was just an important game for us to come off a game like that and to experience success,” Davis said, “because when you experience success, you just believe more in yourself.”
Carle Ward led Republic with six kills, and she also added a block. Kailey Manes had 11 digs, Kaemyn Bekemeier had three service aces, and Rylee Moseman served up 12 assists.
Republic improves to 2-2.