Ooltewah Makes Short Work Of White County In 3-3A Volleyball

Lady Owls Sweep, 3-0; Earn Title Shot And Sectional Berth

  • Monday, October 12, 2015
  • Larry Fleming
Sidney Killingsworth of Ooltewah goes up for a kill as two White County defenders are about to launch a block attempt. Killingsworth and the Lady Owls stormed past the Warriorettes, 3-0, Monday and will play for the Region 3-3A volleyball title on Tuesday. The win also assured Ooltewah a spot in Thursday's sectional.
Sidney Killingsworth of Ooltewah goes up for a kill as two White County defenders are about to launch a block attempt. Killingsworth and the Lady Owls stormed past the Warriorettes, 3-0, Monday and will play for the Region 3-3A volleyball title on Tuesday. The win also assured Ooltewah a spot in Thursday's sectional.
photo by Dennis Norwood

Ooltewah had one goal going into Monday night’s Region 3-3A volleyball tournament match against White County.

Don’t mess this up.

The Lady Owls, shooting for their third regional championship in four years, never wavered in thrashing the outmanned Warriorettes, 3-0, and advanced to Tuesday’s championship match against the Walker Valley. Game scores bear out the one-sided outcome: 25-7, 25-6 and 25-7.

The Lady Mustangs (29-12) finally subdued Cookeville, the District 6-3A champion, 3-2, and earned their first sectional berth in school history.

Game scores were 25-20, 19-25, 25-22, 22-25, 7-15.

Walker Valley built a 7-2 lead in the fifth game, but Cookeville pulled to within 7-6. The Lady Mustangs then scored eight of the last nine points to clinch the win.

On Wednesday, Ooltewah staved off Walker Valley, 3-2, for the District 5-3A championship.

Tuesday’s region title match will tip off at 6 p.m. The winner will host a sectional game in a bid to reach the state tournament while the loser hits the road.

“As of right now we’re already in the sectional,” Ooltewah star Alex Biro said. “But that’s not enough. We want to win (Tuesday) no matter who we play. We know Walker Valley and they want to beat us, so we have to play like that. If it’s Cookeville, that will be for vengeance for last year. We’ll fight to beat them. We want to host sectionals and we’ll fight hard to do that.”

Last October, the Lady Owls opened the regional tournament with an easy win over Rhea County, but shockingly blew a 14-10 fifth-game lead and eventually lost 16-14 to end their bid for another region championship.

A few days later, Ooltewah lost to No. 2 Siegel, 3-1, with game scores of 17-25, 25-23, 13-25 and 17-25, finishing the season with a 48-9 record, third-most wins in school history behind 52 in 2002 and 49 in 2007.

Monday’s game scores told the story of the lopsided contest: “Their coach said the team improved a lot late,” Ooltewah coach Elaine Peigen said. “For them to upset two higher-seeded teams told us they deserved to be here. I thought our girls played well and we look forward to playing (Tuesday) night and Thursday.”

No one inside Edward M. Foster Gymnasium doubted Ooltewah was superior against the visiting Warriorettes, who finished sixth – dead last – in District 6-3A but pulled upsets of the tournament’s Nos. 3 and 2 seeds to shockingly reach the regional under the direction of first-year coach Danielle Hillis.

Especially, the Lady Owls players.

“It didn’t take long,” said Sidney Killingsworth, who had two kills and seven blocks. “We still had to keep our cool, play our game and win.”

Ooltewah (43-11) zipped into an 8-0 lead and stretched the margin to 12-1 in Game 1.

The Lady Owls had a quick 12-2 advantage in Game 2.

And a 10-3 cushion quickly turned into a 16-4 lead in Game 3.

“We knew this team was the sixth seed in their district,” said Biro, a Carson-Newman University commitment. “And they beat the three and second seeded teams, so that told me they had gumption and fire. We just expected to play our hardest and hope that would be enough. And it was.”

It was Biro who pulled the Lady Owls’ trigger in the opening game. She opened with a kill, service point and an ace. After an Ooltewah unforced error, Biro came back with another ace, Hannah Henderson scored on a kill, Biro served an ace and Hanna Matthews capped the early 8-0 run with a push deep into the right corner.

Biro finished with 11 kills, two assists, seven aces, five digs and four blocks.

The spread just kept getting wider. It was 12-1 after a Henderson block at the net and she had a kill that gave the Lady Owls an 18-5 lead.

White County’s Maggie Savage scored on a slap, cutting Ooltewah’s lead to 20-7, but Matthews answered with a slam, Biro followed with a block, a left-handed flip and slap and Matthews ended the first game with an ace.

The quick-strike Lady Owls were off and running, and first-year Warriorettes coach Danielle Hills, faced the reality of the situation.

“Ooltewah is a fantastic team,” she said. “Their setters were quick and their hits came fast and quick and they had an awesome back row. They’re a very good team and we knew that coming in and knew we had a challenge in front of us.

“We’ been labeled the Cinderella team back home because we had no expectations to get this far. The fact we got here is a blessing, we’re humbled and very happy to make it to regional.”

It was much the same in Game 2.

Ooltewah scored seven straight points – Killingsworth blocked Malaysia Carrick, Jadyn Raschke got a service point, White County made an unforced error, Raschke added back-to-back service points, Courtney Swafford blasted a kill and Carrick’s shot found net to cap the scoring spree.

Biro’s kill pushed the lead to 19-5, but Matthews serve sailed long. The Lady Owls scored the final seven points to close out the game to take a 2-0 lead.

Shelby Sutton started that spurt with a slap, Biro served an ace, Sydney Alleman recorded three straight slams and Sutton ended the game with  a slap.

Wanting to make quick work of the third game, Ooltewah zipped into a 10-3 lead on Henderson’s kill. After a White County score, the Lady Owls outscored the Warriorettes (4-15), 13-3 to push the lead to 23-7 – Biro had two kills and two blocks in the run.

Unforced errors by White County gave Ooltewah the final two points it needed to move on to the championship game.

“We had to come into the match tough and strong,” Killingsworth said. “We didn’t know much about (White County), so we just had to play hard. We won’t have a problem getting ready for our opponent on Tuesday.”

STATISTICS

White County

Did not keep stats

Ooltewah

Alex Biro – 11 kills, 2 assists, 7 aces, 5 digs, 4 blocks

Hanna Matthews – 2 kills, 25 assists, 4 aces, 5 digs

Alexis Godsey – 1 assist, 4 aces, 6 digs

Hannah Henderson – 7 kills, 1 dig, 1 block

Courtney Swafford – 5 kills, 6 digs

Sidney Killingsworth – 2 kills, 7 blocks

Summer Williams – 7 digs

Shelby Sutton – 5 kills, 1 ace, 1 dig

Jadyn Raschke – 1 aces, 5 digs

McKenzi Mansfield – 1 ace, 6 digs

Aubbie Collake – 1 kill

Sydney Alleman – 4 kills, 1 assist

Macy Milliken – 1 ace, 4 digs

(E-mail Larry Fleming at larryfleming44@gmail.com and follow him on Twitter @larryfleming44)

Ooltewah standout Alex Biro's shot hangs on the net Monday during the Lady Owls Region 3-3A volleyball tournament. Ooltewah won easily, 3-0, and takes on Walker Valley on Tuesday for the championship match set for 6 p.m.
Ooltewah standout Alex Biro's shot hangs on the net Monday during the Lady Owls Region 3-3A volleyball tournament. Ooltewah won easily, 3-0, and takes on Walker Valley on Tuesday for the championship match set for 6 p.m.
photo by Dennis Norwood
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