By Chris Parker (OzarksSportsZone.com)
Winona volleyball knows adversity.
The Lady Wildcats have been ravaged by injuries this season so much so that they won a game earlier this season in which the Lady Wildcats played with just five players.
So when Winona dropped the first set of its Class 1 Quarterfinal match 25-20 to host Miller, there wasn’t any panic in the Lady Wildcat huddle.
“We talk all the time about our program and what Winona volleyball is. We have been beaten down this whole year. We have had torn ACL’s, torn MCL’s, torn rotator cuffs and broken feet. Our senior setter got back this week for districts, and she tore her meniscus Thursday in practice. Here we are completely short-handed again. I just said ‘you guys can do this and I know you can do this’. We have had such a rough year and it has made them even stronger going through everything they have been through. We just believed that nothing can keep us down at this point,” Winona head coach Francie McBride said.
That belief was echoed with her players.
“We all came into the huddle and we all agreed that it wasn’t over. We weren’t quitting and we weren’t done. We were going to keep fighting and do whatever it took,” senior Delaney Hicks said.
CLICK HERE FOR PHOTO OF THE MATCH
McBride also made some adjustments with her setter as they went to the second set.
“We weren’t getting our kids the ball to hit. Our setter was struggling with that. We have some big time hitters, and if we got them the ball I knew that we could make it a game. We really worked with our setter about what we needed to do and who she needed to get the ball to and where, and she started doing that,” McBride said.
It didn’t look good for the Wildcats in early in the second set as Miller jumped out to a 6-2 advantage with a loud crowd spurring them on. Winona would battle back and eventually use a 4-0 run to take a 16-13 lead. From there Winona would keep Miller down on its way to a 25-19 second set win to force a decisive third set.
Going into that do-or-die set, all the momentum was squarely with Winona.
“I try not to let myself get emotional, but everything we have gone through this year, you could feel it coming. I just felt like nobody was going to stop them after they won that second set,” McBride said.
Things clicked early and often for the Lady Wildcats as they jumped out to a 4-1 advantage and used a 5-0 run to push their lead to 10-5 at one point to force a Miller timeout.
“We were just flowing together as a team and reading each other’s motions so we knew where to put the ball,” Hicks said.
Miller scored two quick points out of the timeout, but the Lady Wildcats would respond with a 6-1 run to make it 16-8 and force another Miller timeout as Winona rode a wave of momentum.
“It (the point streaks) just got me more pumped up and more excited and made me want to swing harder. It was crazy and intense. It was the best feeling I have ever had in my life,” senior Bridgette Rutledge said.
Winona would go on to close the set out with a 25-13 win and book a trip back to Cape Girardeau for the Class 1 Final Four. It will be Winona’s fourth trip to the Final Four in five years.
Last year’s district loss to Eminence broke a streak of four straight Final Four qualifications. It is a loss that has motivated this team.
“It is priceless. This is everything I have been thinking about since Oct. 18 of last year when we lost districts,” Hicks said. “We have been working every day since then to get here and it has paid off.”
Now they will take their shot at the best Class 1 has to offer with one thought in mind: no regrets.
“They have learned who they are this season and today. We just have to take that and put it all out on the floor. Our goal was to have no regrets at the end of tonight and we don’t have any regrets. We are just going to keep rolling with that motto,” McBride said.
If Winona was able to win a title it would provide a nice bookend for the seniors as the last state title came their freshman year.
“I have always had confidence that we were going to go all the way just like we are right now,” Rutledge said. “I am pumped. I am going for that first place win just like we did my freshman year.”
Rutledge led the Lady Wildcats with 16 kills. Kiley County was second with 13 kills. Lyndsey Rightenower had 12 kills and five aces. Hicks chipped in 19 digs. Anna Cox had 30 assists and two blocks in the win.
Winona will open Final Four pool play action on Friday, Oct. 27 at 8 a.m.
Lynna Hadlock had 25 digs in her final match as a Lady Cardinal. Fellow senior Tori Collins had a team-high eight kills. Junior Bethany Gulick was just behind her with seven kills. Saydie Barnes chipped in 13 assists.
Miller finishes a stellar season with a record of 26-10-1.
