Lady Sandite Volleyball heads to Coweta Tournament this weekend

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Photo:\\MORGAN MILLER

By: Scott Emigh, Editor-in-Chief

The Charles Page High School varsity volleyball team (2-3) will compete in their first tournament this weekend. The Lady Sandites will travel to Coweta High School Friday morning for an eight team competition beginning at 9:00 a.m.

The Sandites started the season with back-to-back wins over opponents who dominated them in years past. The Muskogee Roughers (1-2) fell 3-1 to the Sandites in the season opener and next to go down were the Catoosa Indians (1-2). The Lady Indians were Regional Champions last year, but fell in straight sets to Sand Springs.

The ladies gave the defending 5A State Champions from Bishop Kelley a run for their money before falling 3-2 Monday night. Tuesday they were defeated 3-0 by the 6A State Runners-Up from Jenks (7-2) and Thursday they fell in sets of 22-25, 16-25, and 21-25 to Ponca City (5-4).

The girls will look to get back in the win column Friday when they take on yet another State Finalist in 5A Heritage Hall (0-4). At 11:00 a.m. Catoosa will get a rematch, at 1:00 p.m. the Sandites will play Coweta (1-1), and at 3:00 p.m. they will take on the Edison Eagles (2-3). 

On Saturday the Sandites will return to action with a 10:00 a.m. match against East Central (4-3) followed immediately by an 11:00 a.m. match against Tahlequah (0-0) and a 1:00 p.m. match against Claremore (2-2).

After pool play concludes, all eight teams will compete in the bracket competition. There will be two brackets, each beginning at 3:00 p.m. The second round will be played at 4:00 p.m. and the championship match will be played at 5:00 p.m. Each match will be decided by the best two out of three sets with the first two sets capped at 30 points and the third set played to 15 points with no cap. 

Pennington and Schuler hit home runs in 14-9 loss to No. 4 Morris Lady Eagles

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By: Scott Emigh, Editor-in-Chief

The No.17 ranked Charles Page High School slow pitch softball team (7-5) dropped the Haskell Tournament opener to 5A No.4 Morris (23-4) in a close 14-9, but swept the rest of the competition aside with ease, needing just twelve innings to defeat three opponents by a combined score of 46-12. 

Morris took the lead right off the bat, outscoring Sand Springs 3-1 in the first inning on runs from Justice Frazier, Kyzia Whisenhunt, and Desirae Tecumseh. Freshman Kimi Presnell drew a walk for the Lady Sandites and scored on a single by Jessica Collins.

In the second inning was more balanced with Frazier hitting a homer for the Eagles and Kellie Johnson scoring a run for Sand Springs. The Lady Sandites tied it up in the third inning on runs from Presnell and Sydney Pennington but Morris scored Maddie James and Lyric Ward for the edge in the fourth.

The Lady Eagles further pushed the advantage with eight runs in the fifth. Sand Springs made a good run at it with Pennington and Schuler hitting back-to-back homers scoring themselves and Presnell. Cameron Clemons scored Collins and Jacie Taber scored Rachel Blair, but they were unable to equalize it and the sixty-minute time limit expired with Sand Springs trailing 14-9. Northeastern State University-signee Jessica Schuler (3-2) got the loss on the mound.

Sandite of the Week: Ethan Baxter

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By: Scott Emigh, Editor-in-Chief

This week Sandite Pride would like to recognize Charles Page High School freshman Ethan Baxter as Sandite of the Week for his outstanding performance at the Tulsa Edison Green and White Tournament this past weekend.

Baxter leads his team in scoring this season with four goals, three of them coming in a single game this weekend. His hat trick led his team to a 4-1 victory over Regent Prep to snap a five-game losing streak. 

He scored his first goal of the season in a 4-0 shutout of Muskogee in the opening week. He scored his first goal of the Regent game on a header less than 8 minutes into the game, then added his second exactly 4 minutes later. 

The Sandites are now 2-7 for the season and came in 6th of 8 teams in the Edison Tournament.

Sandite of the Week is a weekly recognition given to any one person with significant ties to the Sand Springs community who accomplishes remarkable achievements during the Sunday through Saturday week preceding the award. Prior achievements may be noted in the article, but do not bear direct influence on the selection committee which only considers prior week accomplishments. Candidates may be nominated by anyone by emailing SanditePrideNews@gmail.com. Bylaws prevent the giving of the award to anyone for two consecutive weeks, but any recipient may be nominated and awarded again in the future, so long as the weeks are not consecutive. Final selection is made by a majority vote of a three-person staff committee. 

Businesses or organizations seeking to sponsor the Sandite of the Week award may contact the above email for inquiries.

Lady Sandite Soccer wins sixth straight for Edison Tournament Championship

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Story and photo by: Scott Emigh, Editor-in-Chief

The Charles Page High School girls soccer team (8-1) isn't showing any signs of slowing down. The ladies have outscored their opponents by a combined 33-4 so far this season, including six shutouts. The Edison Eagles (3-5) fell 2-0 in the championship round of their Green and White Tournament Saturday night. Previously the Sandites defeated Tulsa Memorial (4-4) by 4-0 and Booker T Washington (6-2) by a close 3-2. The Sandites are the only team to defeat the Lady Hornets this season, also defeating them 2-0 earlier this week. 

The Lady Sandites wasted no time in firing off shots as Kyndal Zicker sent one a tad wide less than a minute in. Edison's Alex Hopkins retaliated with a pair of shots in the 14th minute; one snuck a tad wide, and the other was saved by Sandite keeper Abigail Banks.

Zicker drew first blood in the 19th minute, bouncing a shot off of Evann Couch, then set up Kylie Taylor for the two-goal lead just two minutes later.

Brooklyn Eardley made a great low and hard shot in the 22nd minute but Raegan Richins was equally impressive with a diving save. The two teams spend the next several minutes midfield before the Sandites made another offensive push that culminated in Emma Peak sending one wide.

The Eagles returned the ball to Sand Springs's territory a few minutes later and Jade Belauste sent a slow roller towards Banks that she easily scooped up. Zicker set up Breanna Campbell for a header with 8 minutes to go but Richins was ready with the save. 

The second half was a lot slower and had far fewer close calls. Banks saved a close one 19 minutes in, but most of the game was spent midfield. Lauren Tavaglione sent a hard shot into Richins with fourteen minutes left and DeShazo sent one just a hair high with eleven left.

Banks made yet another impressive save with two minutes to play, diving for a penalty kick by Couch, and it would be the last real shot of the game as the girls prevailed 2-0.

The Lady Sandites will return to action Tuesday night at Union who is still undefeated 7-0. 

Sandites take sixth place at Edison Green and White Tournament

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Story and photo by: Scott Emigh, Editor-in-Chief

The Charles Page High School boys (2-7) settled for a sixth place finish at the Edison Green and White Tournament Saturday afternoon, falling 2-0 to the host team for a 1-2 tournament record. 

The Eagles (5-3) got off to a heavy offensive early on and the bulk of the first half was spent in Sandite territory, with shots ringing out left and right. Steven Astin got off one shot that was completely undefended and miraculously caught the goal post for the save.

Sophomore Blake Faulkner was all over the ball but took a while to get sighted in. His first shot deflected off a Sandite defender, two minutes later he sent one wide left, and two minutes after that he sent one high through the football goal posts. Finally he found his mark in the 12th minute and found an opening under triple coverage to fire a shot right to the center of the goal. 

Edison didn't stop their press there. Cameron Chamberlin took a shot just two minutes later, then Eddie Vargas bounced one off a Sandite's back a few minutes later. 

Sand Springs finally began to make some offensive moves in the 21st minute as Ethan Baxter, who just recorded a hat trick in Friday's victory over Regent Prep, made a close run at goal but was tripped up by the Eagle goalie who made a dive at the ball. 

Austin Morrison had a very close shot as he bounced a header off the ground in front of the goal and it just narrowly flew high. Alex Hernandez sent in a corner kick soon after and Kaleb Brooks sent a header high and wide. 

From there, however, the Eagles returned to the offense for the duration of the half. Vargas and Angel Torres each took long shots that sailed high. In the final minute Sand Springs tried to rally as Hernandez took a wide shot with 45 seconds left and Cade Loomin made a run at goal in the final seconds, but regulation expired with the Sandites in a 1-0 hole.

The second half was a lot slower, but Edison furthered their lead to 2-0 with a goal in the 11th minute by Jack Coon. Hernandez got off another pair of shots for the Sandites, sending one high and one wide, and Morrison got another close call as he tipped one off the post with 2:40 remaining. Unfortunately the boys were unable to rally and ran out of steam.

The Sandites will return to action Tuesday night at Union (6-0).

Ethan Baxter scores hat trick in 4-1 victory over Regent Prep

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Story and photo by: Scott Emigh, Editor-in-Chief

The Charles Page High School boys soccer team (2-6) snapped a five-game losing streak with a dominating 4-1 performance against Regent Prep (0-4) in round two of the Edison Green and White Tournament Friday afternoon. Freshman Ethan Baxter scored the first hat trick of the season for the Sandites and Kaleb Brooks added the exclamation point in the moral victory.

Sand Springs took the lead early on in the eighth minute off a Baxter header. The Rams tried to get off a shot three minutes later but Sandite keeper Ethan Tippit was quick with the save to maintain the lead. 

Baxter was back at it again on the next Sandite drive and scored another goal exactly four minutes after his first, this time on a wide open shot at center. Simon Hollekve got in a close battle with the Regent keeper that looked more like a wrestling match than a soccer match, but ultimately the Ram got the ball scooped up for the save. 

Tippit was all over the ball whenever the Rams actually got shots off, which was rare, but he unfortunately wasn't expecting his own teammates to make a go at him and Regent got on the board off a wild own-goal nine minutes into the second half. 

The Sandites took a few wide shots throughout the second half, none very close, till Baxter completed his hat trick with 5:20 to play. 

The Rams only got off one close shot in the second half, a powerful kick by Mitchell Love, but he was no match for the eager arms of Tippit. 

Baxter finally let another Sandite in on the scoring action as Cade Loomin set up Brooks for a 4-1 lead with 1:50 to play.

Baxter leads the team in scoring now with 4 goals for the season, followed by Andrew Morrison with 3, Brooks with 2, and Alex Hernandez, Loomin, and Cody Gurley with 1 each. 

Sand Springs will play Saturday at 1:15 for fifth place in the tournament. Their opponent has not been decided yet. The Lady Sandites (7-1) will play in the tournament championship round Saturday at 6:30 against Edison (3-4).