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The Columbus Lady Cardinals have officially punched their ticket to the State Tournament on Saturday, Nov. 11, which will be held at the Curtis Culwell Center in Garland.
In order to get to that point, the Lady Cardinals defeated Poth in the Regional finals in three straight sets.
The Lady Cardinals captured the Regional Championship for Region IV 3A and for the third year in a row are heading back to the State Tournament. It took a full team effort Saturday night as the Lady Cardinals got to work early and were buzzing around the court to start the match.
The Lady Cards took the first set 25-15 and set the tone for the rest of their match against Poth. The were able to Ally Tribe, Ember Mandola, Taylor Morrow and Gracie Schobel were at the heart of the Lady Cards aggressive offensive attack accounting for 68 of the 78 total attacks the Lady Cards had.
Tribe led the way with 12 kills with Mandola being right behind her with 11 kills as they continued to apply pressure throughout the match. Morrow and Schobel also chipped in with them recording seven and six kills respectively.
The momentum from the first set carried over into the second set for the Lady Cards but Poth still had some fight left in them. Poth kept things really close in the second set and the Lady Cards have been in this position before.
Once they settled down into the set the Lady Cards took over completely and slowly began widening the gap on the scoreboard. As they approached the set point the Lady Cards defense was not giving anything up to Poth, which allowed their offense to close things out.
With a score of 25-20 the Lady Cards moved on to the third and final set of the match and they did not miss a beat. The Lady Cards knew what was at stake and did what they had to do in order to get where they wanted to be.
With more strong defense coupled with an undeniable offense, the Lady Cards overwhelmed Poth in the final set. Poth pushed back and scratched and clawed trying to beat the Lady Cards and keep themselves in the match, but the Lady Cards were just too much.
The Lady Cards closed out the final set with a score of 25-18 and the celebration began as they are heading back to the state tournament.
The Lady Cards’ next match is coming against Gunter in the State Semi-Finals on Thursday, Nov. 16, at the Curtis Culwell Center in Garland, TX
