Madison Burris scores 7 aces in Senior Night victory over Bartlesville

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Photo: Morgan Miller

By: Scott Emigh, Editor-in-Chief

The No. 13 ranked Charles Page High School varsity volleyball team (24-13) won their final match of the regular season Tuesday night at home, and celebrated Senior Night with a 3-1 victory over the No. 17 Bartlesville Lady Bruins (12-18). 

Sand Springs: 72 kills, 39 errors
Bartlesville: 42 kills, 26 errors

SS Kills: Mutiri 19, Kersgieter 14, Burris 9, Youngblood 6, Cypert 3, Leslie 2, Ward 2, Taylor 1, Bradshaw 1. 
BV Kills: McPhail 13, Lindsly 5, Covell 5, Culver 4, Krause 3, Tisdale 1, Kirchner 1.

SS Assists: Burris 24, Ward 18, Youngblood 1, Cypert 1.
BV Assists: Britt 27.

SS Blocks: Mutiri 7, Kersgieter 3, Youngblood 3, Leslie 2, Burris 1.
BV Blocks: McPhail 6, Krause 5, Lindsly 4, Culver 2.

SS Aces: Burris 7, Youngblood 3, Ward 2.
BV Aces: Tisdale 1.

SS Digs: Mutiri 9, Kersgieter 7, Mudd 6, Taylor 5, Ward 4, Burris 2.

The Lady Sandites will be graduating three senior this year: two players and one manager. Baylee Mudd plans to attend Tulsa Community College where she will major in Sonography. Lee Leslie is undecided on where she will attend college, but intends to major in Business Marketing and wants to play collegiate volleyball. Malany Benton plans to attend Oklahoma State University to study Canine Rehabilitation. 

The seniors from both teams were celebrated before the game and presented with flowers.

Sand Springs started off the first game hot, taking a 7-1 lead thanks to aces from Devree Youngblood and Madison Burris. The first two Bruin points came on combined blocks from Madi McPhail and Callie Krause. Those two would combine for eleven blocks over the course of the four games. 

Sand Springs held a significant lead through the entirety of the first set and wrapped it up 25-17, scoring sixteen points and committing only seven errors. The Bruins were held to a mere ten points and committed nine errors. 

The Bruins never led in the first game, and only led once in the second game after the opening serve from the Sandites traveled out of bounds. Bartlesville returned the service error on the next rally, and the Sandites scored four straight points on a trio of kills from Ohio State commit Gloria Mutiri and a kill from Burris. 

Once again, after the Sandites got going, nothing slowed them down and they prevailed to a 25-18 victory. This time Bartlesville committed only four errors, but the Sandites were on fire and scored 21 points with six kills from Holly Kersgieter and seven from Mutiri, while holding the Bruins to only eight kills. Sand Springs committed ten errors in that set.

In the third set the Sandites started out hot with a kill from Youngblood, an error from Bartlesville, and back-to-back Youngblood aces to lead 4-0, before committing three straight errors to allow a tie at 6-6. The girls got back in rhythm and regained the lead at 12-7 before once more allowing a tie at 12-12. This pattern of building then relinquishing leads would persist until back-to-back errors gave Bartlesville their first lead of the game at 24-23. A kill from McPhail gave Bartlesville the set, 25-23. Sand Springs scored sixteen points and committed eleven errors while the Bruins scored fourteen points but only committed seven errors. 

The fourth game was equally matched and tied up six times. The Sandites led or tied all the way till the end before the Bruins were once more allowed to take the lead at 21-20, but this time the Sandites surged to a 25-21 victory after a block combo from Mutiri and Leslie. The Sandites scored nineteen points to the Bruins' ten, and committed eleven errors to the Bruins' six. 

The Sandites will return to action at the Regional Tournament in Edmond on Tuesday, October 11 and will play No. 4 Edmond Santa Fe (21-8), No. 18 Yukon (9-18), and Moore (5-22). Sand Springs hasn't played Santa Fe or Yukon yet this season, but have beaten Moore six sets to one over two matches at the Broken Arrow tournament. The Sandites are 0-4 against teams that have beaten Santa Fe, while the Lady Wolves are 5-4 against teams that have beaten Sand Springs. 

Lady Sandites fall in straight sets to Broken Arrow despite being matched offensively

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Photo: Morgan Miller

By: Scott Emigh, Editor-in-Chief

The No. 15 ranked Charles Page High School varsity volleyball team (21-12) hosted the No. 6 Broken Arrow Tigers (18-5) Tuesday night and battled valiantly through the match, dropping three close sets of 23-25, 23-25, and 21-25. Offensively the Sandites actually had the edge with 45 kills to the Tigers' 44, but the Broken Arrow team was more disciplined defensively and committed far less errors.

Sand Springs: 45 kills, 31 errors
Broken Arrow: 44 kills, 22 errors

SS Kills: Mutiri 22, Kersgieter 7, Youngblood 5, Leslie 3, Burris 3, Mudd 1, Cypert 1.
BA Kills: Bledsoe 19, Wratten 9, Smith 9, Blackburn 2, Bercher 2, Cowan 1. 

SS Assists: Burris 16, Ward 6, Cypert 2, Leslie 1.
BA Assists: Blackburn 31

SS Digs: Leslie 14, Taylor 11, Kersgieter 6, Mutiri 5, Burris 2, Mudd 2, Ward 2, Ward 2, Cypert 1. 

All three sets were back-and-forth affairs with the scoring being tied for nearly a quarter of the match. Broken Arrow led for the majority of the first and second sets, but the Sandites actually had the edge in game three before the Tigers came from behind to spoil it.

Sand Springs committed fourteen kills in the first set with eight of them coming from junior Ohio State University commit Gloria Mutiri. Madison Burris registered five assists in the first game. The most the Sandites ever trailed by was 17-13 before going on a four-point run to tie it up thanks to a kill from Mutiri, an ace from Holly Kersgieter, and a tipped ball from freshman Devree Youngblood. 

It was a back-and-forth game from there until an error by Makina Wratten tied it up at 20-20 and the Sandites took the lead on an ace from Burris. Kamryn Smith tied it back up at 21-21, but Mutiri scored back-to-back kills off sets from Burris and Makenna Cypert for the 23-21 advantage.

Those would be the last points the Sandites would score, however, as Mackenzie Backburn set up Mia Bledsoe for back-to-back kills, followed by back-to-back aces from Julia Bercher to win the game 25-23. Both teams committed nine errors apiece in the first set, but the Tigers had 16 kills to the Sandites' 14. 

Sand Springs scored the first kill of game two thanks to Youngblood, but the Tigers won the next four with a pair of kills from Wratten and an ace from Smith. Sand Springs one-upped the Tigers with five-straight rallies off two kills from Mutiri and a combined block by Mutiri and Cypert to lead 6-4. They held that lead till 7-7 when Blackburn set up Bledsoe for back-to-back kills. The Sandites struggled to keep the lead from there and by 11-10, it was the Tigers with the advantage.

The Sandites didn't lead again for the duration of the game, but they tied it up six more times before Broken Arrow took the penultimate lead at 17-16. Sand Springs got close at 24-23 off a Mutiri kill and Burris assist, but Blackburn scored on a fake set tipped ball to secure another 25-23 victory. Once again it was Mutiri who led the scoring for the Sandites with nine points, and Burris registered seven assists.

Sand Springs got off to another great start in the final set and lead for 45% of the game. Wratten scored the first kill of the set, but Lee Leslie tied it up, Mutiri took the lead on a kill, Burris served an ace, and Mutiri registered a solo block for the 4-1 advantage. Broken Arrow didn't manage to tie it till 10-10 off a Sandite error.

From there the game was back-and-forth. Burris, Cypert, and Bledsoe all hit aces. The game tied at 19-19 off a Tiger error, but once they regained the lead, they held it till the end and won 25-21.

Errors have been the defining factor in nearly every Sandite loss this season as the high-powered Sandite offense led by Mutiri, Kersgieter, and Youngblood has little difficulty in keeping up in a shootout. Any time the communication is good, the Sandites win with incredible numbers. But when they start building campfires and colliding, that's when it falls apart. Lately, however, they've done far more destroying than falling apart.

The Sandites upset No. 14 Bixby 3-2, went 6-2 at the Catoosa Tournament, upset 4A No. 1 Metro Christian 2-0, and upset No. 10 Union 3-2 as well. Since the month began, their only losses have been 3-0 to No. 5 Owasso, 2-0 to 4A No. 3 Victory Christian, and 2-0 to 4A No. 1 Metro Christian, who they split with. The errors that plagued the beginning of the season are becoming fewer, the defense is getting tighter, and the offense is continuing to give it 100% all the way till the end. 

The Sandites have only two matches left before the Regional tournament and both are away games. They will travel to 5A No. 5 Collinsville (19-9) this Thursday at 6:00 p.m., and will take on their Highway 97 rivals from Sapulpa (2-11) next Monday at 6:30 p.m.

Gloria Mutiri commits to Ohio State University for volleyball

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By: Scott Emigh, Editor-in-Chief

Charles Page High School senior Gloria Mutiri is the first Sandite of the Class of 2018 to officially declare her college intentions. The 6'2" left handed outside hitter announced her commitment to NCAA Division One Ohio State University this past weekend.

Mutiri has been the leading scorer all three years at Sand Springs, which is remarkable considering she only began playing volleyball in the eighth grade. In her time as team captain she has helped guide the ladies to their first winning season in years and has also been a major factor as a two-year starter on the girls' basketball team. 

She has been named Sandite of the Week twice in the last year, once for volleyball and once for basketball. She averages more than 4 kills and 3 digs per set this season and has recorded 55 solo blocks and 41 aces. Her season-best is 31 kills against Tulsa NOAH, though she also scored 30 against Bixby and 29 against Union in 5-set shootouts. 

The Ohio State Buckeyes are currently ranked seventeenth in the nation with a 10-2 ranking, having lost 3-2 to No. 13 BYU and unranked Missouri State. They finished last season 25-10 overall, 12-8 in the Big Ten, and 11-3 at home. Head Coach Geoff Carlston is in his ninth season at the Buckeye program and has gone 171-104 in his career there. Their last season came to a close at the NCAA Regional Semifinal with a 3-2 loss to Wisconsin.

Edit: This article previously identified Mutiri as a senior in the Class of 2017, which was incorrect.