Lady Sandites dominate Moore Lions 3-1 in Broken Arrow Tournament

By: Scott Emigh, Editor-in-Chief
Photo: Morgan Miller

After dropping the first two matches of the Broken Arrow Volleyball Tournament Friday morning, the Charles Page High School Lady Sandites (11-7) got back in the win column with a 3-1 victory over the Moore Lions (1-11). 

The Sandites took a quick 3-0 lead on errors before Bri Maxwell scored the first kill of the game. Gloria Mutiri scored the first Sandite kill on an assist from MaKenzie Ward for the 6-2 advantage and soon followed it up with an ace. A pair of kills from Kaylee Walker helped Moore close the gap to 8-7 before the Sandites pulled back ahead with a pair of aces from Ward. 

The Sandites gave up three straight errors soon after and Walker and Ashley Vap blocked an attack from Madison Burris to tie it up at 11-11. The teams battled back and forth from there with the Lions taking a brief lead on an ace from Walker before Burris got payback with a solo block of her own. Mutiri scored a kill on a set from Ward, then combined with Burris for another block. Lee Leslie added a kill, Moore committed a fault, and Devree Youngblood served an ace for the 19-14 advantage. Moore closed the gap once more to 21-20 before Sand Springs went on a run with Ward scoring a kill and setting up attacks for Holly Kersgieter and Leslie for the 25-20 win.

In the second set it was Moore who took an early advantage, surging to a 12-5 lead before a service error broke their momentum. Madison Ward scored a kill and the Lions committed a series of faults to cut their lead to 14-12 before going on another run to make it 18-12. Mutiri came to the rescue soon after with four straight aces and Kersgieter added a kill to tie it up at 21-21. Moore picked up two points on errors, but Kersgieter scored another kill and MaKenzie Ward hit a pair of aces en route to a 25-23 Sandite victory.

The third set was a shootout in the beginning before communication problems tied up the Sandites and a series of campfires and errors gave Moore the 14-8 lead. Kersgieter scored back-to-back aces to make it 17-13, but the Lions wouldn't slow down and Maxwell scored three straight kills to win it 25-15.

The fourth game looked like it would belong wholly to the Lions after they started 5-0 with kills from Maxwell, Bri Prescott, and two aces from Walker. A service error from Walker got the Sandites on the board and Burris scored an ace of her own. Mutiri and Leslie combined to block Maxwell and a Lion error cut the lead to 5-4.

Sand Springs tied it up at 7-7 with a kill from Mutiri, and the girls took the lead as Mutiri served four straight aces. Prescott broke it up with a kill, but Kersgieter took a turn hitting and scored a pair of kills. Youngblood capped off a series of errors with an ace to push the advantage to 19-10 and MaKenzie Ward and Mutiri added some late kills for the 25-12 win.

Mutiri led in the scoring with 23 kills and nine aces, followed by MaKenzie Ward with eight kills, four aces, and a team-high eleven assists. Kersgieter also had eight kills and two aces. Leslie and Youngblood scored three kills apiece and Madison Ward scored two. 

The Lady Sandites placed third in their pool with a 1-2 record after dropping matches to the Northeast Oklahoma Association of Homeschools (3-2) and No. 3 Norman North (10-2). The girls will play in the Silver bracket tomorrow at 9:00 a.m. against No. 20 Bartlesville (2-7). If they lose their first match they'll play for seventh place at noon. If they win, they'll play for fifth place at 1:30 p.m.