Sandites Sweep Muskogee 3-0 on Senior Night

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It was a Senior Night sweep for the Sandites Tuesday night at the Ed Dubie Field House.

The Charles Page High School volleyball team (14-15, 1-7) earned its first conference win of the season, 3-0 against Muskogee (16-13, 0-8) in a dominant performance.

“Our conference is tough,” said head coach Skyler Jackson. “The Frontier Valley is full of teams that are always contending for the State tournament. It’s good to get a win in the conference.”

The visiting Roughers took a 4-0 lead to open the match but Sand Springs soon surged ahead with a 14-point streak led by five aces from Brooklyn Shope and a trio of kills from Averi Tippit.

After losing game one 25-14, Muskogee hung much closer in game two. Muskogee led 9-8 till Adelynn Ray heated up with four aces to put her team out front for the remainder of the set.

The Roughers cut it as close as 15-13 before a kill from Shope kicked off an 8-1 run to put the comeback firmly out of reach. Shope capped the win with another ace at 25-16.

Sand Springs never trailed after 2-1 in the final game, though the Roughers never quite let the Sandites pull away.

It looked like Sand Springs would run away with things after going up 17-8 on kills from Ray, Mikayla Bradford, and Patience Pearce, but the Roughers responded with four in a row to make it 17-12.

Sand Springs finished strong, however, and Evyn Morrow capped off an exciting final rally with a kill at 25-18.

Morrow, a senior, set the tone on defense with 24 digs to accompany her kill and four aces.

“Always exceptional,” said Jackson. “Even her bad days are good days for everybody else. She’s always our spark plug. She just goes hard, loves the game, and loves her team.”

Shope ended the night with six aces while Morrow and Ray had four apiece with a team total of 17.

“We have kind of gone up and down on our serve game, so it was nice to see some consistent, tough serving today,” said Jackson.

Shope led the offense as well with seven kills, followed by Tippit with six. Ray and Hannah McKelvey had nine assists apiece and Jayden Smith had 14 digs.

Before the match, the Sandites celebrated their seven seniors: Hannah and Faith McKelvey, Tippit, Morrow, Bradford, Natalie Szabo, and Pearce.

“It’s exciting, but it’s sad,” said Jackson. “Senior Night means the end of the season is around the corner.”

“Last year’s seniors really left a big hole and these seniors really stepped up and filled the gap. They’ve evenly shouldered the weight and they’ve been real role models and great teammates.”

Sand Springs will look to ride the momentum of its first conference win into a Thursday regular season finale at No. 3 Jenks (27-5, 8-0), who has already clinched the conference title.

The girls also received their postseason assignment this week and will travel to No. 6 Bishop Kelley (18-9) on Tuesday at 4:30 p.m. The winner of that match will play for the Regional Championship at 7:30 p.m. against the winner of No. 11 Mustang (22-7) vs. Union (8-22).

“We’re just going to focus on us and continue to figure out how we can be aggressive and things that we can do to get better through that match and through our practices leading up to Tuesday.”

CPHS 3 Muskogee 0 (25-14, 25-16, 25-18)
Kills: CPHS 24, Muskogee 21.
Blocks: CPHS 2, Muskogee 1.
Aces: CPHS 17, Muskogee 5.
Service Errors: CPHS 8, Muskogee 5.
Errors: CPHS 21, Muskogee 32.

(Sand Springs Stats)
Kills: Tippit 6, Shope 6, Pearce 4, Smith 2, Morrow 1, Bradford 1, Ray 1, Egger 1, Szabo 1.
Assists: H. McKelvey 9, Ray 9, Morrow 2, Tippit 1.
Digs: Morrow 24, Smith 14, Ray 11, F. McKelvey 5, H. McKelvey 2, Pearce 2, Taff 1, Bradford 1, Shope 1.
Blocks: Tippit 1.5, Szabo 0.5.
Aces: Shope 6, Morrow 4, Ray 4, H. McKelvey 2, Tippit 1.

(Muskogee Stats)
Kills: Essex 9, Rodriguez 7, Chyenne 2, Russel 2, Ficklin 1.
Assists: Ficklin 10, Moore 4, Doughty 1, Tremblay 1.
Blocks: Russel 0.5, Lewis 0.5.
Aces: Rodriguez 2, Essex 2, Rainbolt 1.

Broken Arrow Sweeps Sandite Volleyball 3-0

The Charles Page High School volleyball team is still looking for its first conference win after falling 3-0 to No. 5 Broken Arrow (16-7, 5-1) Tuesday night at the Ed Dubie Field House.

Sand Springs (11-11) dropped to 0-6 in the tough Frontier Valley Conference despite playing a fairly competitive match against the perennial powerhouse.

The Tigers ran away with the first game, building momentum behind an eight-point run early in the set to go up 17-3.

Sand Springs responded with a five-point streak of its own behind kills from Brooklyn Shope and Averi Tippit, but Broken Arrow got hot once again and closed out the set with an 8-1 run.

The next two games were much closer, however.

After falling behind 12-5 early in game two, the Sandites cut their deficit as close as 16-13 but could never quite tie it up. Broken Arrow pulled away to win 25-19.

Game three stayed close much longer as the Sandites only trailed 10-9 midway through, but from then on it was one step forward and three steps back before Broken Arrow prevailed 25-15.

Despite the loss, the Sandites were impressive at times, extending the rallies with exceptional defense.

Evyn Morrow recorded 21 digs, followed by Adelynn Ray with 12. Jayden Smith showed off on both sides of the ball with eight digs and a team-high six kills to tie Shope. Hannah McKelvey had 10 assists.

The Sandites will look to get back above .500 when they host 5A No. 6 Sapulpa (23-11, 1-4) on Tuesday.

Sapulpa previously beat Sand Springs 2-0 (25-23, 25-12) at the Claremore Invitational, but the Sandites are the defending Highway 97 Rivalry champion after winning the conference match 3-1 last year.

BA 3 CPHS 0 (25-9, 25-19, 25-15)
Kills: BA 34, CPHS 19.
Blocks: BA 2, CPHS 2.
Aces: BA 10, CPHS 5.
Errors: BA 17, CPHS 29.
Service Errors: BA 6, CPHS 8.

(Sand Springs Stats)
Kills: Smith 6, Shope 6, Tippit 4, DeBerry 2, Ray 1.
Assists: H. McKelvey 10, Ray 3, Tippit 1, Morrow 1.
Digs: Morrow 21, Ray 12, Smith 8, H. McKelvey 2, F. McKelvey 2, Tippit 2, Shope 2, Taff 1.
Solo Blocks: DeBerry 1.
Assisted Blocks: Ray 1, Pearce 1.
Aces: Tippit 2, H. McKelvey 1, Morrow 1, Ray 1.

Sandite Volleyball Throttles Will Rogers, Shope Ties School Ace Record

After a tough three-match skid, the Lady Sandite volleyball team is back on track following a dominant 3-0 sweep of Will Rogers High School (8-16) Thursday night at the Ed Dubie Field House.

The Sandites stormed out to a 17-0 start in the first game before the Ropers finally got on the board.

No. 16 Charles Page High School (11-10) won game one 25-5 before easing up and winning the next two 25-13.

“It was good to start with,” said head coach Skylar Jackson. “We let up quite a bit there but it was fine.”

Sand Springs dominated all aspects of the match from start to finish, totaling 36 kills while only allowing four. Most of the Ropers’ points came from Sand Springs mistakes.

Sophomore Brooklyn Shope tied the known school record for aces in a single match with 10, matching Madison Burris’s 2019 performance against McLain. Eight of those aces came during the 17-0 start to game one.

Freshman Adelynn Ray impressed on all sides of the ball, leading the team with 10 kills while also recording 11 assists, nine digs, and four aces. Hannah McKelvey led the team in assists with 23 while Shope led the defense with ten digs.

“It was a good time for that match to take place,” said Jackson. "We lost to Bixby (on Tuesday) but took a set from them and the girls feel pretty good about that.”

The Sandites lost a close first game on the road at Bixby, 25-20, before tying the match up with a 25-23 win.

Sand Springs stormed out to a 9-2 lead early in game two and never trailed, though the Spartans tied it twice at 17-17 and 23-23. A double hit gave the Sandites match point and Averi Tippit served an ace to steal the set.

Bixby (6-15) is unranked due to its strong strength of schedule but the Spartans are 4-1 in Frontier Valley Conference play and have stolen sets from many top teams this season.

The Spartans used a four-point run midway through the third set to break a 9-9 tie and never relinquished the lead. Sand Springs stayed close till 16-14 when a service error kicked off a 9-1 run for the Spartans and a final score of 25-15.

The final game was much closer thanks to a late Sand Springs rally. After falling behind 19-10, the Sandites found a rhythm with Jacelyn Smith scoring three kills in a row with assists from Ray.

Sand Springs was unable to tie it back up but the girls held close before falling 25-19.

Smith led the team with nine kills in that match, followed by Ray with eight. Tippit and Alia DeBerry scored seven apiece. McKelvey had a team-high 17 assists while Ray had 11. Evyn Morrow led the defense with 20 digs, followed by Shope with 16.

“Our girls just continue to work hard and continue to buy in,” said Jackson. “They’re a good, close team. We don’t have a lot of drama, they show up for each other and they work hard for each other. They’re a fun team to coach.”

Sand Springs will return to action Tuesday with a conference home match against Jackson’s former team - No. 5 Broken Arrow (15-7, 4-1). The Sandites are still looking for their first conference win of the season after an 0-5 start with four matches left.

CPHS 3 Rogers 0
(25-5, 25-13, 25-13)
Kills: CPHS 36, Rogers 4.
Blocks: CPHS 1, Rogers 0.
Aces: CPHS 18, Rogers 4.
Errors: CPHS 23, Rogers 20.
Service Errors: CPHS 10, Rogers 5.

(Sand Springs Stats)
Kills: Ray 10, DeBerry 9, Tippit 5, Smith 4, Shope 3, Pearce 3, H. McKelvey 2.
Assists: H. McKelvey 24, Ray 11, Morrow 1, Shope 1.
Assisted Blocks: DeBerry 1, Pearce 1.
Digs: Shope 10, Ray 9, Tippit 6, Morrow 5, H. McKelvey 4, DeBerry 2, F. McKelvey 1, Pearce 1.
Aces: Shope 10, Ray 4, Morrow 2, H. McKelvey 1, DeBerry 1.

Bixby 3 CPHS 1
(25-20, 23-25, 25-15, 25-19)
Kills: Bixby 48, CPHS 34.
Blocks: Bixby 9, CPHS 4.
Aces: Bixby 14, CPHS 11.
Errors: Bixby 35, CPHS 27.
Service Errors: Bixby 9, CPHS 5.

(Sand Springs Stats)
Kills: Smith 9, Ray 8, Tippit 7, DeBerry 7, Shope 3.
Assists: H. McKelvey 17, Ray 11, Morrow 2, Shope 1.
Solo Blocks: Tippit 1, DeBerry 1.
Assisted Blocks: Tippit 1, Shope 1, Pearce 1, DeBerry 1.
Digs: Morrow 20, Shope 16, DeBerry 6, F. McKelvey 4, Smith 4, H. McKelvey 3, Tippit 2, Pearce 1, Casey 1.
Aces: H. McKelvey 3, Tippit 3, Morrow 2, Smith 1, Shope 1, F. McKelvey 1.

Sandite Volleyball Falls 3-1 in Exciting Match Against Owasso

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The difference between an average team and a good team oftentimes comes down to how it responds to adversity. Do they resign themselves to failure after tough losses, or do they learn and grow with their losses?

The No. 16 ranked Charles Page High School volleyball team (10-9, 0-4) has taken some tough losses this season, but thus far has refused to roll over - coming out strong time and time again against higher-ranked programs.

That competitive spirit showed up again in a 3-1 loss to No. 7 Owasso (15-8, 3-0) Thursday night at the Ed Dubie Field House.

“It was good volleyball and I’m just so proud of them for continuing to work hard even though it hasn’t necessarily shown up in the win column,” said head coach Skylar Jackson.

After losing the first set 25-22 the Sandites rallied from a 17-11 deficit in game two to win 25-22 before falling 25-18 and 25-14 against the Rams.

“Last year we played a really really great first match against Union and just couldn’t rebound,” said Jackson. “Even though we played so well, we got hung up on the fact that it’s a loss.”

“(This year) we played Booker T. early, we took them to five (sets), they’re one of the top 5A teams in the state. And I told the girls you have one of two options. We can either keep pushing forward or we can get hung up on the fact that we still lost and do what we did last year.”

“They haven’t gotten hung up on it. They work hard every day in practice and it’s starting to show. Taking sets from a top-ten Owasso is a good day.”

A very good day. In fact, the Sandites have only taken a set from Owasso twice since 2017 as the Rams have won the last eight meetings by a combined 22-2.

Sand Springs played a close opening set with four lead changes, six tie scores, and several strong rallies to stay in it. After falling behind 18-13, Adelynn Ray scored a kill and served two aces to close the gap to 18-16.

Owasso tried to pull away again, leading by as much as 23-19 before Averi Tippit and Jayden Smith scored back-to-back kills to keep it close. The Sandites won three of the final five rallies but couldn’t quite even the score before Madi Hill secured the Owasso victory.

In game two it looked like the Rams would run away with it, jumping out to leads of 5-1 and 17-11.

An Owasso service error gave the Sandites new life and Brooklyn Shope served a pair of aces to make it 17-14. Another Owasso service error kicked off a four-point streak with a pair of kills from Smith as the Sandites tied it up at 19-19.

Kiya Colvin scored a pair of kills as Owasso got back in front, 22-20, but yet another service error sparked the Sandites to win five-straight rallies for the victory.

Tippit and Alia DeBerry combined on a block, Evyn Morrow served an ace, and Shope and DeBerry scored kills to tie the match up.

“We’ve had that talk a lot, that when you’re down you’ve got to find another level to go to,” said Jackson. “So that’s something we’ve been talking about - being ready and working hard until October. They did that tonight.”

In game three, however, the Rams took an early lead and never relinquished it, though the Sandites made several late rallies. After trailing 15-7 midway through they cut it as close as 20-17 late in the match before Owasso won five of the final six rallies.

Owasso ran away with game four, winning eight rallies in a row for a 17-6 advantage that the Sandites couldn’t claw their way out of. After trailing 20-8 the girls cut it as close as 23-14 before a pair of errors put the match to bed.

An offensive adjustment for the Rams was the key difference as they ran a higher volume of their attacks through University of Oklahoma-commit Carley Butler in the final two sets. After scoring only two kills through the first two games, she scored eight in the final two.

Freshman phenom Madi Hill scored 14 kills to lead the Rams while Colvin added 11 to put three Rams in double-digits.

Sand Springs was led by Smith with 9 kills, Hannah McKelvey with 15 assists, Morrow with 23 digs, and Shope with 4 aces.

“I’m always impressed with Evyn Morrow,” said Jackson. “She just absolutely freaking kills it. Alia DeBerry - she hasn’t gotten a lot of playing time this season but she stepped out there on right side and had a really great blocking night.”

“All around, our servicing was great and our offense looked good. We were getting some good big blocks out there. I’m just proud of my team.”

The Sandites will return to action Tuesday at Bixby (4-15, 3-1) as they look for their first conference win of the season. The Spartans have won their past two meetings with Sand Springs.

Owasso 3 CPHS 1
(25-22, 22-25, 25-18, 25-14)
Kills: Owasso 51, CPHS 32.
Blocks: Owasso 3, CPHS 4.
Aces: Owasso 9, CPHS 7.
Errors: Owasso 36, CPHS 34.
Service Errors: Owasso 17, CPHS 14.

(Sand Springs Stats)
Kills: Smith 9, Ray 7, DeBerry 6, Shope 5, Tippit 4, Pearce 1.
Assists: H. McKelvey 15, Ray 9, Morrow 1, Smith 1, F. McKelvey 1.
Solo Blocks: Pearce 2, Tippit 1.
Assisted Blocks: Tippit 1, DeBerry 1.
Digs: Morrow 23, Smith 7, H. McKelvey 6, Ray 5, DeBerry 2, Pearce 2, Shope 1, F. McKelvey 1.
Aces: Shope 4, Ray 2, Morrow 1.

Sandite Volleyball Falls 3-0 at 5A No. 5 Regent Prep

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Averi Tippit scored 8 kills in the match against Regent Prep. (Photo: Charity Emigh).

Sand Springs has been putting itself through the wringer lately with three matches against top-five 5A teams in the past week.

The 6A No. 16 Sandites (11-8) took a trip to Tulsa on Thursday for a non-conference battle with 5A No. 5 Regent Prep (10-4) and fell 3-0 after the Rams surged back from an early game-one deficit.

The visiting Sandites rode a three-game win streak into the match and opened strong, taking an 8-3 lead on aces from Averi Tippit and Adelynn Ray.

Regent cut it to a one-point game four times but didn’t take its first lead till Ellen Jenkins scored a trio of kills for the 21-20 advantage.

A pair of huge digs from Evyn Morrow kept the next rally alive long enough for Jayden Smith to tie it up. Brooklyn Shope served an ace and Tippit scored a kill to make it 23-21, but Jenkins scored two more kills to tie it once more.

Tippit gave the visitors one last lead with her fifth kill of the set, but Evelyn Goodwin and Liv Redman scored back-to-back kills and the Rams secured the 26-24 victory after Alia DeBerry’s attack hit the net just an inch or two short.

In game two the Sandites only led once after the Rams’ opening serve came up short, but the home team won the next four rallies and never looked back.

Sand Springs never got within two points of the Rams, but the set stayed close till 18-15 before the home team got hot and won 25-16.

The final game was the same as the second - super tight till 18-16, then Regent won seven of the final eight rallies to prevail 25-17.

Jenkins led her team to its fifth consecutive win with 22 kills while Meg Goodwin recorded 23 assists.

The Sandites were led by Tippit with 8 kills, Shope with 7, and Smith with 5, while Hannah McKelvey and Ray each had 11 assists. Morrow led the defense with 32 digs.

Sand Springs will return to conference action next Thursday with a home match against No. 7 Owasso (6-3, 2-0) where the Sandites will look for their first Frontier Valley win of the season.

Regent 3 CPHS 0 (26-24, 25-16, 25-17)
Kills: Regent 42, CPHS 25.
Blocks: Regent 0, CPHS 3.
Aces: Regent 7, CPHS 7.
Errors: Regent 22, CPHS 27.
Service Errors: Regent 9, CPHS 9.

Sand Springs Stats
Kills: Tippit 8, Shope 7, Smith 5, DeBerry 3, Ray 2.
Assists: H. McKelvey 11, Ray 11.
Solo Blocks: Pearce 1.
Assisted Blocks: Tippit 2, Ray 2.
Digs: Morrow 32, H. McKelvey 8, Shope 8, DeBerry 7, F. McKelvey 5, Tippit 5, Ray 5, Smith 1.
Aces: Tippit 2, Shope 2, Ray 1, Morrow 1, H. McKelvey 1.

Sandite Volleyball Falls 3-0 to Union in Thriller

For the second match in a row, the Sandite volleyball team played excellently as a team but just couldn’t quite find an answer for their opponent’s star power.

Last week it was a 3-2 heartbreaker to 5A No. 11 Booker T. Washington (5-2, 1-1), whose sophomore star Arriana Brown put up 29 kills.

This Tuesday it was a 3-0 sweep by Union (3-5, 2-1), whose senior star Brittney Smith recorded 22 kills.

Sand Springs dropped to 5-5 on the young season and is 0-3 in conference play.

The RedHawks jumped out to an early 6-2 lead in the first set but the Sandites battled back to take a 10-9 advantage on a kill from Brooklyn Shope.

The most the Sandites would lead was 12-10, however, before Union went on a nine-point run.

Sand Springs got the side out on a kill from freshman Adelynn Ray, who has been showing high potential this season. The visitors made the rest of the set competitive but couldn’t quite dig out of the hole, falling 25-18.

Game two was neck-and-neck from the very start with 12 tie scores and six lead changes. Neither team led by more than a point till Union went up 8-6, but the Sandites responded with a three-point run and an ace from Evyn Morrow.

The RedHawks finally began to build momentum late in the game on a deadly combination of low set-pieces by Jayden Smith (each team had their own Jayden Smith) and hammer-fist kills by Brittney Smith that were nearly impossible to dig.

After falling behind 21-16, Sand Springs clawed its way back with kills from Claire Day, Ray, and Averi Tippit before Alia DeBerry served an ace to tie it 22-22.

Brittney Smith and Ray traded kills to tie at 23-23 and again at 24-24, but Brittney Smith got the final kill of the set and Jayden Smith served an ace for the win.

In game three Union jumped out to a fast 5-1 lead, Sand Springs cut it to 8-6, then the RedHawks went on a six-point run to make it 14-7.

Day and Shope scored three kills in a row and Morrow added an ace to cut it to 14-12, but the Sandites never could quite tie it up and ultimately fell 25-20 on an ace from Bailee Mueller.

Day led the Sandites offensively with 10 kills, followed by Jayden Smith with 8, and Ray with 7. Hannah McKelvey had 19 assists and Ray had 17. Morrow recorded 17 digs.

Sand Springs will return to action Friday at the Claremore tournament in a battle of the spouses as current Sandite coach Skylar Jackson leads her girls against her husband, former Sandite coach Derek Jackson.

The Sandites and 5A No. 2 Zebras (11-2) will play at 4:00 p.m. but first the Sandites will take on Collinsville (1-13) at 9:00 a.m., 5A No. 4 Sapulpa (11-5) at noon, and 5A No. 12 Edison (8-4) at 2:00 p.m.

On Saturday they will play Tulsa Memorial (2-2) at 9:00 a.m., 4A No. 7 Verdigris (7-5) at 11:00 a.m. and Tulsa Will Rogers (1-5) at 2:00 p.m.

The tournament will be a small world reunion of Sandites as in addition to the Jacksons, former Sand Springs coaches Wally Poplin (Collinsville) and Caleb Horton (Verdigris) have both coached in Sand Springs and Memorial coach Audra Estrada lives in Sand Springs.

Union 3 CPHS 0 (25-18, 26-24, 25-20)
Kills: Union 43, CPHS 40.
Blocks: Union 2, CPHS 1.
Aces: Union 3, CPHS 9.
Errors: Union 12, CPHS 28.

(Sand Springs stats)
Kills: Day 10, Smith 8, Ray 7, Tippit 5, DeBerry 5, Shope 4, Pearce 1.
Assists: H. McKelvey 19, Ray 17, Morrow 2, Smith 1.
Blocks: Ray .5, Pearce .5.
Digs: Morrow 17, Smith 6, Pearce 5, Ray 3, DeBerry 3, F. McKelvey 2, Day 1, H. McKelvey 1.
Aces: DeBerry 3, Ray 2, Smith 2, Morrow 2.