The Willow Springs Bears will take on the Cabool Bulldogs at 5:00 p.m. on Thursday. The two teams each escaped (but just barely!) with wins against their previous opponents.
Willow Springs will bounce into Thursday's contest after beating Mountain Grove, who they had gone 1-7-1 against in their nine prior meetings. The Bears sure made it a nail-biter, but they managed to escape with a 3-2 victory over the Panthers on Tuesday. For those keeping track at home, that's the closest win the Bears have posted since September 13th.
It was an exciting match in which no team won back-to-back sets, but at the end of the day Willow Springs got the one that really mattered. The match finished with set scores of 25-19, 23-25, 26-24, 20-25, 15-13.
Meanwhile, Cabool waltzed into their matchup on Tuesday with two straight wins... but they left with three. They came within a single set of losing the streak, but they secured a 3-2 W against the Tigers.
Cabool was staring down a 2-1 deficit headed into the fourth set, but they rallied to take the next two for the win. Once all was said and done, the final score wound up at 20-25, 25-16, 21-25, 25-12, 15-3.
Willow Springs' victory bumped their record up to 19-6-3. As for Cabool, their win bumped their record up to 23-7-3.
Willow Springs skirted past Cabool 3-2 in their previous matchup back in October of 2024. One of the biggest obstacles trying to stand in the way of that victory was the Bulldogs' Nataleigh Cornelius, who had 22 digs and five assists. Now that she won't be playing on Thursday, will it be easier for the Bears to walk away with another win? There's only one way to find out.
