WEBB CITY, Mo. — The Webb City Cardinals won a critical third set after nearly squandering it and then closed out a 3-1 victory (25-22, 22-25, 28-26, 25-13) with a strong fourth set on Monday against the Bentonville (Ark.) Tigers at the Cardinal Dome.
“Too close to the finish to force another set,” Webb City coach Rhonda Lawrence said. “We wanted to make sure that we stepped out there and ended it. We were very intentional on matchups of who was blocking who, giving us a better opportunity. We found their weakness, and we tried to exploit it hard during that fourth set. Obviously, it worked, but they had some unforced errors that helped us out a little bit.
“Proud of the way that we played intentionally. We played under control. We played our guts out, played hard volleyball. Played smart volleyball, too, and that’s what can set your team apart. If we can get to a consistency of doing that, we’ll be tough to beat.”
Webb City improved to 7-2-1 overall entering Tuesday’s road match against Seneca and the Cardinals finished off their Northwest Arkansas portion of the schedule 2-1 against Bentonville West, Rogers Heritage, and Bentonville.
“Northwest Arkansas volleyball is always competitive, and this is actually the first time in the history of Webb City volleyball, since we’ve started playing them, that we’ve beaten Bentonville High School,” Lawrence said. “We’ve beaten Bentonville West several years, but it’s the first time we beat Bentonville, because they’ve always been super-stacked, and they’ve won tons of state championships.”
The Cardinals open Central Ozark Conference play Tuesday, Sept. 20, against Carl Junction and Thursday, Sept. 22, against Willard, both matches on the road.
“It’s the only way to get prepared for the COC,” Lawrence said of playing schools like Bentonville and Bentonville West. “Because our COC volleyball is some of the best in the state of Missouri. That’s the beauty of it.”
Aubree Lassiter led the Cardinals on Monday with 15 kills, Brenda Lawrence and Kate Brownfield combined for another 22 with Lawrence at 12 and Brownfield 10, setter Kyah Sanborn found ways to finish with five, Kirra Long added four, and Jaeli Rutledge had two.
Sanborn had 40 assists and 10 digs, Sophia Crane 24 digs, Brownfield 14 digs, and the team combined for 12 blocks, as well as 48 kills, 68 digs, and 11 service aces.
The Cardinals, in fact, ended both the third and fourth sets on aces.
Webb City returns home Saturday to host a quad with St. Mary’s Colgan, El Dorado Springs, and Nevada visiting the Cardinal Dome.
