ARCANUM – The No. 22 seed Bradford Lady Railroaders struggled to keep up with the No. 2 seed Jackson Center Lady Tigers in OHSAA DIV tournament play, losing in straight sets.
“My seniors came out tonight and I think they came more to enjoy the game and I hope they did,” said Bradford coach, Alisha Apple. “We know Jackson Center is a really good team, they were No. 2, and they have always been a good team so we knew coming in that it would be a hard game.”
The Lady Tigers, one of the area’s best DIV teams jumped out to a 25-6 first-set win and never looked back taking set No. 2 by a 25-5 count and following up with a third set 25-6 win.
“We worked on a couple of things of getting hard balls up and other things at practice,” Apple said. “My seniors actually ran practice yesterday and I was really proud of them because they did a lot of things that I would normally run in practice but they added a little fun touch to it. It’s nice to know that they are actually learning a couple of things when we are practicing.”
Four Lady Railroaders played the last volleyball match wearing the Orange and Black for Bradford including No. 1 Macenzy Hemmelgarn, No. 5 Savannah Lingo, No. 6 Izzy Painter and No. 20 Brooklynn Crickmore.
“We have quite a few girls that have played that will be returning,” Coach Apple said of the 2024-2025 season. “I hope they take the time this summer to take that extra time to learn and get a little bit better. We have a lot of potential to be a good team in the next couple of years. I just hope they realize that.”
