Republic stepped up their aggressiveness after falling into an early hole and worked their way back for a win in four sets against Springfield Glendale, 21-25, 25-19, 25 -18, 25-12.
The Lady Tigers trailed 10-7 in the second set, but they outscored Glendale 18-9 the rest of the way to even the score at one set apiece. They had to come back again in the third set after falling behind 6-1, but they tied the score at 6-6, then pulled away. In the fourth, the Lady Tigers led most of the way.
“When we were preparing for this game, I basically was like, ‘Keep the ball in the court.’ That’s all I wanted to do is be aggressive against this Glendale team and keep the ball in the court – eliminating errors on our side (and) making Glendale work for every point,” said coach Allison Davis. “After that first set, I was like, “We need to start playing Republic volleyball… Let’s go – you’re the better team here. And let’s show what we’re made of.”
Davis said her team started playing more aggressively when they turned it around.
“I feel like we kind of came out a little timid at first, and then we started seeing that every time we put the ball up in the air and we slammed it down, we were getting those points. I encouraged them to just keep being aggressive.”
Three Lady Tigers – Avery Riggs, Kaemyn Bekemeier, and Kailey Manes – had 13 kills. Manes also led the team in digs with 13. Rilynn Finley contributed four blocks. Payge Plank had 46 assists and five service aces.
Republic improves to 4-5-2. The Lady Tigers host Branson Tuesday and Republic Tiger Sports will stream the game live.
