Two similar volleyball programs–both with a rich history of success, and both starting the season with an unproven, young roster–met Thursday when Republic visited Carl Junction. In the end, Carl Junction came away with the victory in three sets, 21-25 25-19 25-20.
The opponent and the boisterous environment, with a full Carl Junction student group packing their section of the bleachers, was a test for the young Lady Tigers.
“As far as the environment goes, with the screaming and yelling from the stands, I feel like we handled it pretty well,” says coach Piper Wright. “We just didn’t execute like we needed to, and we didn’t score points when we really needed to.”
Wright says the key was Republic’s inability to execute a few key concepts they’ve been working on in practice.
I feel like if we’d made those changes in practice and really been disciplined, that could have been the difference between a win and a loss,” Wright says. “Transitioning all the way off the net on the outside, getting all the way to the line with our left backs, incorporating the middle a little bit more: we’ve been working on them, working on them, working on them in practice, but we just haven’t quite made them a discipline yet. I really think if we had made those things a discipline, we’d be in a little different spot right now.”
Brooke Stanfield led Republic with seven kills. Mikayla Botkin had 12 assists, and Eryn Russell led the defense with 10 digs.
The Republic JV lost 25-19 25-20, and the freshmen lost 25-7 25-19.
Republic falls to 0-1.