For the Lady Cardinals Volleyball, the first serve of the season came last week in the annual Branson Invitational.
Stepping onto the court to face Branson in their first action of the year, the Lady Cards fought hard, impressing in the second set despite ultimately falling to the Pirates on their home court.
Next up for the Lady Cards was a bout against Rolla in which the Lady Cards also impressed, but fell slightly short.
Regrouping after two hard fought losses, the Lady Cards inevitably broke their two-game slide against their following opponent Cassville, earning their first win of the season in an exciting matchup where the Lady Cards energy and effort took center-stage.
Doubling up on that success, the Lady Cards would stay on the positive side of the win column against Parkview, building momentum into a matchup against Kirkwood.
While that momentum was not enough to propel the Lady Cards to victory against the rival Pioneers, the team as whole played maybe their best ball of the tourney, impressing many including Head Coach Kassidy Hannah, who commented that she was “especially proud” of the team’s effort in the loss as the girls “left everything out on the court.”
Hannah went on to add that “the match against Kirkwood really felt like a product of the team’s steady growth throughout the tourney.”
Following the Branson Invitational, the Lady Cards headed to El Dorado Springs for the El Dorado Springs Tri Tourney.
There, the Lady Cards fell to the hometown Lady Bulldogs to start the action, rallying back with the same fight they showed against Kirkwood in their following match, and handing Adrian a loss to split the event at 1-1.
This brings the Lady Cardinals record through one week of the season to 3-4. But while just a notch below .500 on the season, the teams record could be a little misleading, as the Lady Cardinals have notched 3 wins out of their last 5 matches, in large part to strong energy and effort coupled with a “no-quit” mentality.
In speaking with head coach Kassidy Hannah about the progress of the team so far this season and where they sit though seven games, Hannah was encouraged by the team’s progress, noting that the “girls had shown a lot of growth and grit.”
Further commenting that while “the team is not at its peak yet; they’ve shown a lot of progress and stood up to adversity.” As for the peak that Hannah speaks of, it’s a matter of when, not if.
This week the Lady Cardinals look to continue their progress as both a team and in the win column, with matches against both Knob Nobster and Smith-Cotton on the docket.
Lady Cardinals stat leaders on the season include: Senior Mercedez Brown, who leads the team in three key categories: Average Kills Per Set (3.4), Hitting Percentage (0.325), and Digs Per Set (3.6); Senior Nyssa Brown, who leads the team in blocks (8); and Senior Jazmyn Shockley who has tallied 9 Serving Aces on the season.
