Oakwood teams win season’s first volleyball matches
It may not have been flashy, but it certainly was effective.
Focusing on returning serves and simply getting the ball back over the net, the Oakwood Christian Middle School Lady Eagles nickeland-dimed and frustrated visiting OLPH on Thursday with a straight-sets sweep that gave them their first victory of the season.
“It feels so good,” head coach Emily Shamblin said after the Lady Eagles’ 25-23, 25-14 victory. “We’ve been working hard and we proved that today. Now we’re ready to take this on to rest of our season.”
Oakwood had just seven total kills on the night, but played steady and mostly mistake-free volleyball in both sets, while allowing the visiting Rams to make mistakes and give up points on service and hitting errors.
The first set saw seven ties and five lead changes with neither team going up by more than four points. A kill by Cadyn Cahill put OCA up 10-6 and the Lady Eagles were up 13-10 when OLPH reeled off seven unanswered points, five coming on aces, to forge a 17-13 lead.
However, a service error would halt the run and Mana Gilchrist would serve up four straight points to help OCA retake the lead, 18-17. Gilchrist had an ace in the run, while Callie Vona added a kill.
A kill by Alli Dortch, a great diving dig by Natalie Overton and two aces by Anna Grace Stone increased the Lady Eagles’ lead to 22-18, but the Rams would respond. They would win five of the next six points, including two on aces, to knot things up at 23 apiece. However, the next serve would go long before a final unreturnable hit by Caroline Tindell gave OCA a 1-0 lead in the match.
The strategy would pay off even more in the second set. Stone clicked off seven straight service points in the opening stages of the set as the Lady Eagles opened up a 10-4 lead. The Rams would cut the def- icit down to 10-7 with three straight points, but that would be as close as they get the rest of the night.
Two aces by Gilchrist and two kills by Tindell down the stretch would give OCA some extra breathing room and the Lady Eagles would finish things off in style with a final ace by Overton.
“Serves were important,” said Shamblin, explaining the game plan of letting their opponent make the mistakes. “When it did come back over (the net), we rushed to attack and it paid off. I’m very proud of the girls.”
Gilchrist had three kills, three aces and finished with nine total service points. Tindell had two kills, an ace and a spectacular diving dig which led to a point in the second set. Maggie Wright added four consecutive service points late in the match, while Vona also chipped in with seven assists.
The Lady Eagles’ JV team fell to OLPH in the night’s first match, 25-17 and 25-8. Individual statistics were not available.
The Lady Eagles lost home matches to the visiting Seahawks last Tuesday. OCA’s JV squad fell by scores of 25-10 and 25-6, while the OCA varsity team lost 25-21 and 25-15.
Individual statistics had not been provided as of press time.
On Friday, the OCA JV team earned its first win of the season, 25-12 and 25-23, while the varsity Lady Eagles (2-2) followed suit with a 25-16, 25-12 win in Chickamauga.
“I’m so proud of the (JV) girls,” Shamblin said. “They have so much potential,” she began. “I’m proud of how hard they have worked so far this season and I’m so excited to see how much we continue to improve and grow as a team.”
Brock Donnahoo’s walk-off single in the bottom of the fifth inning gave the JV Warriors a victory over LaFayette on Friday in a game that was shortened to just five innings.
The Ramblers led 8-0 after the top of the second inning, but Lakeview would get back in the game with four-spots in both the second and third innings. They trailed 9-8 going into the final inning when Tilman Leonard tied the game with an RBI-single before Donnahoo’s gamewinner.
Jacob Gregg picked up the win on the mound for Lakeview, while Zach Barrett had three hits for LaFayette.
The Warriors also faced East Hamilton out of Chattanooga in a non-conference
The Tigers took a 2-0 lead after one inning and tacked on three runs each in both the third and fourth innings as they shut out the visiting Rockets in a non-conference game last Tuesday.
Brady Hermann, Ross Norman, Bryson Bethune and Christian Smith each had a single as they accounted for all four of Ringgold’s hits. Norman, Sebastian Haggard, Jacob Garnica and Myles Hudson had one RBI apiece. Westside hurt itself with five errors.
Five pitchers, Haggard, Brent Lee Raby, Deven Black, Ty Gilbert and Dawsyn Ware combined for the shutout. They allowed just one hit and two walks with 11 strikeouts.
The Tigers were able to manufacture a pair of runs in the bottom of the seventh inning and claim an exciting
The Tigers hosted the Blue Tornado on Friday afternoon and found offense tough to come by against the Chattanooga private school club. Smith had a double and scored the lone run for Ringgold on a Norman RBI.
Norman pitched two innings, allowing two earned runs on three hits and three walks with two strikeouts. Raby gave up two earned on three hits and two walks in one inning with one strikeout. Black threw two innings. He allowed an earned run on two hits and two walks with one strikeout, while Gilbert threw two hitless innings, fanning two.
A seven-run first inning was more than enough of a cushion to lift the Generals to a home victory over Trion Wednesday afternoon in Boynton.
Garrison May pitched three innings for Heritage. He allowed one earned run on four hits and two walks with one strikeout. Landon Skeen threw two innings, giving up an unearned run on one hit with five strikeouts, while J.J. Hunt pitched two hitless innings and struck out three batters.
Skeen also paced the offense with two hits and two RBIs on the day. Tyler Cheatwood had a hit and knocked in two runs. Brady Chandler and Taylor Vinson each had a hit and an RBI, while Gage Shaver also knocked a run.