By Israel Potoczny (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
The Willard Tigers are on quite a roll.
The No. 1 seed in the Missouri Class 4 District 10 tournament cruised to a district title on Tuesday in Lebanon, defeating Camdenton in straight sets in the semifinals, then posted a 25-12, 25-20 win over Hillcrest in the championship.
It is the third straight district title for the Willard program, capping an amazing run led by longtime head coach Jamalee Hancock.
Now in her 16th year at the school, Hancock was a part of another three-peat at Willard as the Tigers won three straight in 2002-2004.
The current roster has four players, juniors Kasey Brower, Kennedy Atkinson, Timberlyn Barnett and Kara Finkbiner, that started as freshmen and have all been a big part of the current run.
“It’s a battle to win a Class 4 district and this for me as a coach is the greatest feeling as a coach,” Hancock said. “I will take this group of girls … they are so humble in their talent and it doesn’t matter what I ask them to do, they do it with a smile.
“They support each other and love this game. Overall, they are a special team.”
Now 29-4-3, the Tigers have not lost a contest since Sept. 29 when they took the Ozark Tigers to three games. They were 6-2 in the COC and also dropped a match to Nixa and two to Rogersville.
“From Day 1 this team has put together a solid season,” Hancock said. “This team has found a way to work as a team and pull out a lot of wins. We have had really good ball control and we have a lot of kids that love volleyball.
“They are great teammates and we had a strong desire to win this for the third year in a row. We knew we could and a lot of years you have a lot of adversity throughout the season, but this year we had zero.”
Hillcrest has had its own solid run this season, going 25-7-3 overall and 6-3 in the Ozark Conference. On Monday, the Hornets got past Waynesville, 2-1, then avenged an early loss to Lebanon in Tuesday’s semifinal match, rallying for a 25-19 win in the second game.
“I told my team that I had watched Hillcrest, Lebanon and they were great teams,” Hancock said. “But we executed so well. Our hitters had very few errors and our defense played to its potential.”
Willard will have a tall task ahead of them on Saturday as they will play on the road against the winner of District 11. There, Ozark, Branson, Kickapoo and Nixa will play its semifinal and championship matches on Wednesday.
