MURFREESBORO, Tenn. – A disappointing day at the Class 3A state volleyball tournament turned into heartbreak Wednesday night for the Ooltewah Lady Owls.
District 5-3A and Region 3-3A tournament champions, the Lady Owls ran into two buzz saws – mighty Brentwood and surprisingly tough Houston and came away empty handed. Ooltewah failed to win any of the six games it played.
After bowing to Brentwood, 3-0, the Lady Owls took it on the chin, 3-0, against the Lady Mustangs from Germantown and were eliminated from the tournament.
Game scores versus Houston were 27-25, 25-15, 28-26 and the teams played before a near-empty Murphy Center.
A long power outage created havoc with the day’s schedule. The Lady Owls and Lady Mustangs were slated to play around 11 p.m. in Middle Tennessee State University’s Alumni Memorial Gymnasium, but the game was shifted back to Murphy Center where one of two courts was available for play. The scoreboard on the second court was still not working.
“All three games were tight,” Ooltewah coach Elaine Peigen said, “and we had our opportunities and didn’t capitalize on them. This was heartbreaking.”
The night loss ended Ooltewah’s season at 45-13.
Houston is now 43-14 and will play Bearden in another elimination game on Thursday morning at 11:30 Central. The Lady Mustangs fell to Farragut in their opening-round game.
“We knew the morning match (against Brentwood) would be a battle,” Lady Owls senior standout Alex Biro said. “We had seen Houston a lot and we scouted them earlier in the day. They really wanted to beat us bad since we had beaten them during the season. The definitely wanted it for real.”
Opportunities?
In Game 1, Ooltewah had a 25-24 lead, but watched as Houston scored the next three points to claim a 27-25 win.
The Lady Owls were within 22-21 in the second game, but again the Lady Mustangs scored the final three points to go up 2-0.
In Game 3, Ooltewah pushed ahead 15-10, but Houston answered with five straight points and the match was tight the rest of the way.
One of Hannah Henderson’s eight kills tied the game at 26, but the Lady Mustangs got back-to-back kills by senior McKenna Wharton to ice the match.
“I’m going to continue my volleyball career (at Carson-Newman University),” Biro said, “but a lot of my friends aren’t. That’s the sad thing about losing tonight.”
Houston came into Wednesday’s action with an all-time 5-19 state tournament record.
The Lady Mustangs played hungry, aggressive and were taking no prisoners with a constant barrage of kills, including several by senior Rhonda White, a key figure in the victory.
“In the game we scouted them, at times they played well and at times they didn’t,” Biro said. “In our game, they threw a lot at us we hadn’t seen. They were a good blocking team and we’re not used to that. For me, it was hard to work around that.
“And they did a good job picking their shots.”
Biro, a kill machine around the net over the past two seasons, was blocked at least five times by the net-swarming Houston defense. For large portions of the match, Ooltewah was playing on its heels and the Lady Mustangs welcomed the chance to take control.
For example, in the opening game, Ooltewah had a 15-13 lead after a Biro kill, but Houston ran off five straight points to grab an 18-15 lead. Henderson scored on two blocks in a row to pull the Lady Owls to within 18-17.
Houston scored five of the next seven points – the last two on Mary Morgan-Truitt’s tap and kill – and led 23-19. The Lady Owls got a slap and kill from Biro and a Hanna Matthews service point and took a shaky 25-24 lead.
Then Mallory Carty blocked Biro on back-to-back plays and Krysta Medearis got the game-ending kill.
“We just couldn’t get in a rhythm,” Peigen said.
Trying to keep from falling behind 2-0, the Lady Owls scratched and clawed to stay within striking distance at 20-15. Biro unleashed a kill, a White killed sailed long and Matthews scored on a kill and Ooltewah trailed 20-18.
Trailing 22-19, Biro got a kill and Henderson blocked a Carty slap. Suddenly, the Lady Owls had hope at 22-21.
Houston dashed those hopes when Medearis slammed a shot off Sidney Killingsworth, Carty blocked Henderson and Wharton blocked Shelby Sutton.
The Lady Mustangs were in good shape at 2-0.
Ooltewah had one of its best moments – a 5-0 run that opened a 15-10 lead in Game 3. That streak was aided by two service errors by the Lady Mustangs. The Ooltewah lead wilted under three kills by White an unforced error by the Lady Owls and Henderson’s shot that cleared the baseline.
A Biro kill gave Ooltewah a 21-19 lead, but Houston responded with four straight points, including three Carty kills. Ooltewah took advantage of two Houston errors to tie the game at 23-all. The game was tied again at 24-24 and 25-25.
Wharton outscored Ooltewah 3-1 down the stretch to seal the victory.
“Things just didn’t go our way tonight,” Peigen said. “We had a good season and I’m proud of the girls.”
STATISTICS
Ooltewah
Alex Biro – 17 kills, 1 ace, 3 digs, 1 block
Hanna Matthews – 5 kills, 24 assists, 1 ace, 7 digs
Alexis Godsey – 5 assists, 4 digs
Hannah Henderson – 8 kills, 4 digs
Courtney Swafford – 2 kills, 12 digs
Sidney Killingsworth – 1 kill, 2 blocks
Summer Williams – 5 assists, 2 aces, 21 digs
Shelby Sutton – 2 kills, 9 digs
(E-mail Larry Fleming at larryfleming44@gmail.com and follow him on Twitter @larryfleming44)