WEBB CITY, Mo. — The Webb City Lady Cardinals made it to the state semi-finals last season. Coming into 2023 the team is looking to get back there and take that next step of winning to get to the state championship.

The Lady Cardinals will have no shortage of talent on this year’s roster. They return two All-State players in Sophia Crane who racked up 54 aces last season and Aubree Lassiter who had 305 kills. Jaeli Rutledge is back after a big freshman year where she finished with 198 kills and Kirra Long racked up 41 blocks and both will take on bigger roles this season.

Some girls who will look to make their impacts as well are Mia Lenker, Savannah Crane and Makayla Mayes. Despite losing four seniors from last year’s squad, the Lady Cardinals feel like they can get back to the Final Four.

So what is it going to take to get back to that point?

Head Coach Rhonda Lawrence said, “We’re gonna have to really work together to get that chemistry back that we had. But we also positionally, we’ve got to be a little bit more demanding and a little bit higher level to take us that one step further. They kind of pinpointed some of the things that we were weak at in the Final Four. And our road to even get there is not going to be a walk in the park by any means. We have some of the best competition right around here.”

Kirra Long says, “A lot of a lot of hard work and dedication and just don’t give up in the hard times because there is a lot of hard times last year, but we still made it to the end and this time we’re just going to finish too.”

Aubree Lassiter mentioned, “I mean, it’s going to take. A lot of hard work and just trusting each other, which I think we do a great job of already, but just building on what we have already.”