Bob Foos
After a 3-0 win in the state quarterfinal round at Marshfield Saturday, the Webb City Cardinals are in the final four for the second time in school history.
The Cardinals have drawn the returning Class 4 state-champion St. Pius X Lancers for their first match at the Civic Arena in St. Joseph. Game time will be 4 p.m. Wednesday. The Class 4 third-place and final matches will be Thursday. You can watch streams of the games, for $15.75 each, at MSHSAA.TV!
The first time Webb City went to the final four in volleyball was in 2022. It was in Cape Girardeau, with multiple matches going on at the same time. There was a delay, and Webb City didn’t finish the third-place match until around midnight. It was close, but Webb City lost 3-2 to Platte County, placing fourth.
Coach Rhonda Lawrence says things have improved for this year’s state tournament. At St. Joe’s Civic Arena, only one match will be played at a time, and the third-place game, as well as the final, will be played on the second day for each class. Classes 2 and 4 will share the arena on Wednesday and Thursday.
The quarterfinal opponents, Webb City and Marshfield, were close on paper, with near identical records, and the sets were close.
The Cardinals took early leads in the first two sets and held on to win those 27-25 and 25-19.
They were trailing the Lady Jays by four points late in the third set when Lawrence called a time out.
She recalled telling them, “Guys, we are this close to making it to where we have begged for, worked for all year long… you can’t let down now. You have to step on the gas and finish this off to get to where we want to be.”
They did it. They won the last match 25-23.
Speaking about her team’s balance, Lawrence, said, “I may not have the number one person in the all the state of Missouri, but man, I’ve got about nine or 10 or 15 really sold-out kids for each other and they just really put it on for each other.”
In kills, Jaylee VanBecelaere led with 9, followed by Marlee Harper and Savannah Crane, with 8, Kaelyn Maxwell 6, Jocelyn Maxwell 5, Addy Maxwell 2, and Allie Collard 1.
Crane logged 27 sets, and 14 digs.
Avery Gardner had 26 digs, and Avery Pogue, added 13, along with VanBecelaere’s 10 and Collard’s 8.
Zachary Dobbs video