Oberlin, Open Door earn wins at tri-match

Oberlin went undefeated in a home tri-match Oct. 14, sweeping Lake Ridge and Open Door to finish the regular season 10-12.

The Phoenix showed off their balanced offensive attack and strong net presence, but coach Sharhonda Rankin was finally impressed with her team’s defense, especially considering Oberlin’s lack of available substitutes with just one player on the bench at any give time.

“The first game, I liked that one,” Rankin said of the Lake Ridge match. “I thought they played pretty good defense, went after

the ball, didn’t let anything fall . ... Overall, today was a pretty good day. I wanted more. What coach doesn’t always want more? But overall I think they had a pretty good Saturday.”

Karissa Rankin had 16 kills and 15 assists over both matches for Oberlin, Lauren Sands had 13 kills and 16 assists and Kayliana Barbee had 14 kills and two blocks.

Rankin is hoping the trimatch serves as a breakthrough moment for the Phoenix. Considering team goals weren’t quite met this season as Oberlin finished fifth in the Patriot Athletic Conference Stripes Division for the second year in a row, the second-year coach is looking for a strong push heading into next week’s sectional semifinal against Lutheran East.

“I’m hoping they’re hungry enough and they say ... ‘We can pull this off,’ and they just come with some kind of grit. That’s it,” Rankin said. “At the end of the day, they just need to have some kind of fire. To me, I feel like they have everything else. They just need to get that desire and that want to stay hungry.

“We just have to keep building off each game, off each good moment.”

Open Door played backto-back matches, and after falling to Oberlin, the Patriots came back to grind out a 2-1 win over Lake Ridge to finish the regular season 15-5.

Sophomore Zelie Kessler had a team-high 15 kills on the day, and said after a tough loss to Oberlin, she and her teammates were fired up to play rival Lake Ridge, and after the Royals stole the second set, Open Door tightened up on defense and polished its play at the net to secure the win.

“I was really happy with the Oberlin match. I thought we could’ve beat them if we played a little harder, with a little more energy, but we did play really well for that game,” Kessler said. “Coming in, we were really excited and really pumped up to play Lake Ridge. We just said we need this energy, we need to play with this energy, we know we can win this match . ... We came back in with that energy and it was awesome.”

Emerson Dobbins added eight kills for Open Door while Emily Ford had 21 assists.

For Lake Ridge, going 0-2 on the day was certainly disappointing, but Coach Regan Pore was pleased with her team’s effort.

The Royals were working without their starting libero, who’s out with a concussion, and used a completely unfamiliar lineup. Pore added the team has been in a slump in terms of energy and determination, so based on what she saw on the court in both matches, considers it an overall positive day.

“For us, we were in a little bit of a rut as far as positivity, frustration, letting things roll off our back, and that was kind of our goal today and I feel like we did that well going into the postseason,” Pore said. “That was what we needed to work on. I think today the effort was there, especially in the first game . ... I think our positivity and teamwork was good which was our main goal coming into today.

“We’ve had a rough couple days of practice. We did a lot of sitting and talking and we knew what we needed to do and I feel very confident in how we left today in what we needed to focus on.”