Lady Eagles win big over two Wildcat teams

The Liberty Lady Eagles are sitting on a 7-4 season record as they head into SCA action against Ava on Tuesday, September 21. Current district standings are Houston 5-1, Licking 8-3, Mansfield 0-9 and Thayer 3-1.

On Saturday, September 11 the Lady Eagles traveled to West Plains for the Zizzer Show Down. The Lady Eagles went 3-2 for the day in pool play. Defeating Mountain Home JV 25-8, 25-13, Sophomores Bre Daniels and Mackinzie Tomey led with 4 kills. Senior Kenna Woolsey had 11 digs and Senior Shelby Acklin had 3 aces.

Moving on to another victory, the Lady Eagles defeated Rolla in a three set match, 25-13, 22-25, 25-13. Daniels led with 10 kills and 4 blocks, Senior Lexi Shumpert had 16 assists.

The next match of the tournament had the Lady Eagles facing off against Springfield Catholic. The Lady Eagles lost in two sets 19-25 and 18-25. Shumpert had 6 kills and 3 blocks, Junior Lyla Cornman had 11 digs.

According to Head Coach Shari Tune, "Due to a three-way tie in pool play, we got second in total points. This puts us in the fifth seed in the Gold Division."

During bracket play, the Lady Eagles fell to Mountain Home in three sets 24-26, 25-17, 22-25. Daniels led with 11 kills. Sophomore Maci Tharp had 10 digs and Shumpert had 13 assists.

Playing for consolation of gold had Liberty meeting back up on the court with Rolla. The Lady Eagles fell in the first set 15-25 but came back strong for the win in the following two sets 30-28, 25-23. Daniels had 6 kills and 4 blocks. Shumpert had 5 kills, 11 assists and 18 digs.

On Tuesday, September 14 the Lady Eagles hosted the Summersville Wildcats. The Junior Varsity won in two sets 25-17, 25-20. Tomey led with 5 kills and 1 block. Sophomore Kaylie Foster had 4 kills and 1 ace. Varsity won in three straight sets 25-12, 25-8, 25-13. Daniels had 7 kills for the match. Tomey, Shumpert and Cornman each had 6 kills and Freshman Korie Lind had 5 kills. Tharp had 3 aces for the match with Shumpert and Cornman putting up 19 aces and 18 assists. Shumpert had 16 digs for the match.

Hosting the first game in the newly renovated high school gym, the Lady Eagles hosted the Winona Wildcats. The JV came away with a big win in two sets 25-15 and 25-10. Foster led with 6 kills and Tharp had 10 assists. In an intense match, Varsity went into four sets with Winona, but in the end came out on top 25-21, 20-25, 25-22, 25-23. Daniels had 10 kills and 10 digs for the match. Shumpert had a triple double with 10 kills, 14 assists and 17 digs. Cornman had a double double with 15 assists and 23 digs. Both Shumpert and Cornman had 3 aces for the match.

"It's so fun to play smaller schools because they bring so much grit," commented Coach Tune on the win over Winona Thursday night. "That's exactly what Winona did. It was an intense match. Winona is a great team. We did well coming back each game and pushing through. We need to work on our game in the first 15 points. I did like the grit and fire I saw this week. We always have a target on our backs and I like to see us stepping up to the challenge."

Next up for the Lady Eagles is an away game at Ava on Tuesday, September 21 followed by a home game on Thursday, September 23 against Cabool. The following week has the Lady Eagles at home hosting Houston on September 28 and Salem on September 30. All games will begin with JV at 5:30pm.