EDITOR'S NOTE: This article corrects the Set 3 score and also corrects some terminology that was misquoted. We regret the errors.
Oak Grove’s volleyball team was outmatched against Gulfport in the first round of the 6A playoffs as the Lady Warriors were swept 25-21, 25-20, 28-26 on Tuesday night.
“I thought that we fought very hard,” Oak Grove coach Sherry McWilliams said. “Gulfport played a great game. They have some amazing players. I thought that we gave our best effort to them. We had some really young players step up at that level. I was very proud of our team.”
The Lady Warriors struggled to maintain momentum as well as stop Gulfport’s one-two punch of Sydney Mitchell and Laurel Dennis as the pair entered the game with a combined 509 kills on the season.
“After watching some film on them before we played, we realized that (Dennis) and (Mitchell) were their strongest players,” McWilliams said. “We noticed that they swing sharp cross and deep cross, so we tried to set our block in and tried to shut them down early. We made a few adjustments there with our defense. They are some impeccable players, and I feel like our defense was very quick to adapt. We just need to be quicker on the block to adapt to that.”
In the first set, Oak Grove held a 15-9 lead, but the Admirals cut the deficit to one point trailing 20-19. Gulfport seized momentum as Dennis delivered three kills while Mitchell hit two aces in the final 5-1 run. Unfortunately for Oak Grove, the trend of holding an early lead and relinquishing it within the final points was the trend the entire night.
“I feel like being a young team that we have to incorporate that mental toughness in our game,” McWilliams said. "Sometimes when the pressure is really on us we will get discombobulated in serve receive. What we need to focus on is siding out quickly and cleaning up our passes first. We just did not react fast enough in serve receive."
In Set 2, Oak Grove held a 16-10 lead, but again the Admirals clawed within one and trailed at 20-19. Like the first set, Gulfport put the set away within the final points with a 6-0 run.
In the final set, the Lady Warriors again jumped to a 7-0 lead, but Gulfport tied the game 15-15. The two teams then traded points back-and-forth as the set saw six ties and seven lead changes before Dennis closed the match with three consecutive kills.
Dennis and Mitchell combined to record 20 kills and five aces. Oak Grove was led by Anna Pace, who recorded eight kills on the night.
“I was so proud of my team with the way that they fought every single point,” McWilliams said. “We went into this game with the mentality of leaving everything on the court. (I told them) have your whole heart into this game for your team, yourself, classmates, teachers, administrators and coaches. I feel like they really did that in the last set. They turned it up that last set and were fighting until the very end.”
Looking ahead, Oak Grove will graduate three seniors. According to McWilliams, she expects that the program has a bright future with the talented upcoming youth.
“We have a bright future here at Oak Grove,” McWilliams said. “We are graduating three seniors, and it’ll be very hard to replace those three. Not only are they our captains and leaders, but they all play and play huge roles with this team. It’s going to be hard to replace them.
“We have a really good sophomore class moving up. I think they will bring a lot to the table. We have a really good eighth and ninth grade group coming up, so I’m excited to see what they will do together on the court next year.”
