The North Callaway court was full of seniors who were instrumental in building a program.
The Ladybirds (21-7-3, 6-2 EMO) recognized their eight seniors -- Peyton Boulware, Alex Craighead, Lauren Pezold, Lydia Smithee, Kayden Sorell, Rachelle Atterberry, Iceonna Tomlinson and Addy Vermette -- before their four-set loss (14-25, 25-17, 24-26, 19-25) to Wright City (17-8, 7-0 EMO) on Wednesday at home for Senior Night. North Callaway has posted a school-record winning percentage every year, including its first 20-win season in school history, after not having a winning season before last year. Wright City has six seniors this season who have led the Lady Wildcats to back-to-back winning seasons after having a combined five wins the previous two years.
North Callaway was swept at Wright City in September but tied the match at 1 before tying the third set at 24 after being down 24-16. A North Callaway win would have earned the Ladybird a co-conference championship. Craighead led North Callaway with 14 kills, Pezold led with 22 assists and Boulware led with nine digs.
"We left some stuff out there tonight, and it's hard to win if you don't execute in some ways that you need to," head coach Andrew Klein said. "In the set that we won, we did a really good job of controlling the serve and protecting the serve. We didn't do a good job of protecting the serve (in the last two sets)."
North Callaway would like another shot at perennial postseason roadblock Linn (21-5-1) in the Class 2 District 6 tournament next week in Hermann, but Klein said the team has to focus in Eugene (10-12-1) at 6:30 p.m. Thursday night and against Montgomery County (10-16-3), who has lost twice to the Ladybirds this season, in its first district game at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday to earn a shot at the No. 1 seed Linn.
"I'm really happy we have a game tomorrow against Eugene," Klein said. "It lets us get this game off our backs because there was a lot of emotion that went into this with Senior Night and playing for conference. It is going to be really important that we don't overlook (Montgomery County). They're a really scrappy and well-coached team. I don't even want to talk about Linn yet."
Read a full story with about the seniors in the Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2026 edition of the Mexico Ledger.
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