Similar to when the Barber twins played for Ozark a few years ago, the Lady Tigers' Sydney Hampton Macey Sult often get mistaken for each other.
"They're not sisters, but very well could be," coach Brandon Clift said.
Hampton and Sult look quite a bit alike, although at 5-foot-10 Sult is two inches taller. They are also seemingly always side by side. In addition to being teammates and both being forwards, they're best friends and even co-workers.
"They are inseparable. They do everything together," Clift said.
Over the years, Hampton and Sult have grown accustomed to people telling them they can barely tell them apart.
"We're compared to each other a lot. We're everywhere together, so it's constant," Sult said. "We've played travel ball together since we were (in the third grade), so we've heard it all the way through travel ball, in high school and at work."
They work at Cox Medical Center South in Springfield and often have the same shifts, leading to people mistakenly referring to Macey as Sydney and vice-versa.
"We wear the same uniform at work, so people get confused there," Hampton said. "We've been asked if we are twins so many times by random people in the hallway and patients."
It was actually easy to tell the two apart on the hardwood last winter and for a couple weeks this season while Hampton wore a face guard.
She needed the protective mask after breaking her nose a year ago. There was concern she broke her nose again this season during the Lady Tigers' trip to the Rogers (Arkansas) Great Eight Tournament in December. As a precaution, her doctor had her wear the mask again for two weeks.
"(At a shoot-around), I was rebounding for (Sult). I was looking up at the goal and the ball fell on me," Hampton said. "It fell straight on where I broke my nose last year. It was a scare but not a break."
Hampton received clearance from her doctor to play without the mask during the Pink & White Lady Classic last week . She helped Ozark win three of four games, as the Lady Tigers beat Camdenton, Skyline and Ava, while falling in the second round to eventual Pink Division champion Greenwood (Arkansas).
"You get used to (the mask), but I hated it the whole time," Hampton said. "When I got to take it off, I was really happy. I can play a lot better without it. I feel like I can breathe and see a lot better."
Ozark (5-7) opens up the new year by beginning COC play at home against Nixa on Monday.
