Volleyball Wins 2022 Sandite Invitational
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Courtesy.
This story was originally written for the Sand Springs Leader.
The Sandite volleyball team didn’t win its first match of the Skylar Jackson era, but it did win the next six in a row.
After falling 3-0 to Union (1-1) in Tuesday’s home opener, the Sandites bounced back with a 3-1 victory Thursday at Glenpool (4-2) before winning their home tournament over the weekend.
Sand Springs lost close sets of 27-25, 25-19, and 27-25 to Union but won 28-26, 23-25, 25-20, and 25-16 against the Warriors.
“Union’s really good this year,” said Jackson. “To be new to a program but to have the girls buy in so much and be so close with such a good team, I think showed them that they really are capable of doing a lot of good things.”
Good things indeed. The Sandites won their home tournament for the third time in the past four years, and this time it was against all 6A teams.
Sand Springs (6-2) defeated Ponca City (3-3), Enid (1-6), Southmoore (4-3), Choctaw (5-2), and Lawton (0-7) before falling to Yukon (3-5) in the final match of the round-robin tournament.
“To come out ahead (at Glenpool) and then come in our own home gym and play four matches in one day and win all of those was a good testament to how hard the girls are working and how much they’re buying into what we’re doing,” said Jackson.
Jackson is in her first year at Sand Springs after taking over for her husband, Derek, who left for Claremore. She was previously an assistant coach at Broken Arrow.
“We served really well yesterday,” said Jackson. “We received really well yesterday also. Today our middles really were able to get involved and when they were, we were firing on all cylinders.”
On Friday Sand Springs won 25-7 and 25-10 against Lawton and beat Ponca City 25-23 and 25-17. The matches against Enid and Choctaw were far closer.
Enid won the first set 26-24 before the Sandites rallied 25-23 and 25-21. They defeated the Yellowjackets 25-22 in set one before falling 25-17 and rallied to win the third 25-17.
On Saturday the Sandites won 2-1 against Southmoore, 25-19, 19-25, and 25-23, to clinch the tournament title by virtue of head-to-head against Choctaw, who also finished 5-1.
In the final match, Yukon won the first set 25-19, Sand Springs won the second 25-21, and the Millers rallied to a 25-20 victory to spoil the home team’s streak.
“I still think we struggle a little bit with some confidence at times,” said Jackson. “Size-wise, we’re middle of the road 6A and I think just not having the winningest record all the time can be a confidence buster.”
Historically, the Sandites have been one of the lesser teams in 6A, but have finished with winning records in two of the past three seasons.
“I think playing so close with Union and then beating Glenpool and then playing as well as we did shows the girls that we can do those things. But I think that we had a little bit of a slip of confidence there in that first set.”
Senior middle blocker Layla Lenex was named the tournament MVP and senior libero Olivia DeWitt also made the All-Tournament team.
Payton Robbins, a senior outside hitter, was also one of the top contributors for the Sandites.
“She gets the ball often and she does a good job not only swinging but also in defense and service too,” said Jackson. “She’s really stepped up her defensive game this season and that’s huge for her.”
Knocking off a bunch of 6A teams from the west side of the state should help the Sandites earn a decent place in the rankings next week, but more importantly it’ll help sharpen them up before a busy Week 2.
Sand Springs will travel to Owasso (1-0) for a conference battle on Tuesday before competing at the Muskogee tournament over the weekend.
“We’re going to really work on blocking,” said Jackson.”I think if we’d have been a little bit sharper up at the net today in that Yukon match we would’ve shut them down a lot sooner and gotten them a little bit more frustrated. So we’re going to definitely work on blocking, which will be a big deal against Owasso.They’ve got some big hitters.
“And then working our middles in transition. If we can get them involved, it’s a good day. So we’ve got to be able to get them involved a little more often, even on not the best passes.”
Sand Springs will look for its first win against the Rams since 2017 when the match kicks off Tuesday at 6:30 p.m.
