By Jared Porter
Twice the Webb City volleyball team had its back against a wall, and twice the Cardinals bounced back to keep their postseason alive.
Despite dropping the first set in both of its matches on Tuesday night in the Class 4 District 11 tournament at Neosho High School, Webb City rallied to notch a 23-25, 25-18, 25-16 semifinal victory over Republic and a 26-28, 25-23, 25-15 championship victory over Carl Junction to claim its first district title since 2006.
With the district crown, Webb City (28-6) punches its ticket to a state sectional on Saturday against the winner out of District 10, which will also be the sectional host. The District 10 tournament ends tonight at Ozark, and Nixa and Kickapoo are the top two seeds.
"I can't really put it into words; it's so awesome," Webb City coach Rhonda Lawrence said. "These girls have fought for it for so long, and this is the goal we've been talking about for the past three years. This year, we were more focused than ever before, and coming into today, I felt really good about our chances. This has been that special of a group."
The Cardinals' championship win didn't come without adversity, of course. The first set saw Carl Junction jump out to a 10-2 lead before Webb City rallied to tie the score at 25. The Bulldogs went on to claim the set victory after junior outside hitter Salma Lewis logged back-to-back kills.
"I just told our girls that we've got two more to go," Lawrence said. "We just had to be resilient enough and fight through it."
And the Cardinals answered the call.
In a back-and-forth second set, Webb City pulled away from a 20-20 tie with a 5-3 run that was capped by a Maddy Peeples kill.
Then in the decisive third set, the Cardinals used a 6-1 surge to take an 18-12 advantage. Senior outside hitter Anna Swearengen eventually put the finishing touches on the win with a kill attempt that was deflected out of bounds by Carl Junction.
"I think it was 18-12 (in the third set) when I felt like we were really in control," Lawrence said. "You know, we had beaten CJ twice before tonight, and usually, beating a good team like that a third time is really difficult. They know us in and out, and that made it even harder. Salma Lewis is an outstanding player, and they have a lot of good players on that squad."
Peeples and Swearengen led Webb City in kills with 19 and 14, respectively, while Allie Johnson and Anna Hettinger tallied 18 and 16 assists.
For Carl Junction, which finished the season with a 18-16 record, Lewis finished the title match with 32 kills while Logan Jones had 41 assists and Dani Wrensch 17 digs.
"I felt like we ran out of gas there as the match went along," Carl Junction coach Cheryl Sharples said. "I felt like my kids put it all out there in Games 1 and 2, and then we had some errors early in Game 3 and kind of took ourselves out of the match. ... I'm tremendously proud of this group. We struggled for about a three-week stretch in the COC and then bounced back and said we weren't finished yet. Our girls came in every day and worked hard. The great thing is we have all of our offense back for next year."
In the Cardinals' comeback win over Republic in the semifinals, Peeples recorded a team-high 13 kills while Swearengen had eight and Ashley Cates five.
Carl Junction advanced to the title match with a 23-25, 25-21, 25-18 victory over Carthage in the semifinals. The Tigers finished the season with a 23-11-1 record in their first season under head coach Olivia Cooley.
"We came to play, and I think we did execute what we wanted to," Cooley said. "It's a otugh way to end, but I'm really proud of our seniors and the underclassmen who stepped up tonight too. We were playing our best volleyball at the end of the season, which is all you can ask for."
Senior Alexa Boyle led Carthage with 11 kills. Senior Isabelle Howrey led the team in digs with 12, and junior Chloe Black accounted for a team-high 12 assists.
Joplin Globe 10/30/2019 (Used by permission)