It was a balanced effort for the Oak Hall volleyball team on Tuesday night against rival St. Francis Catholic Academy.
The Eagles showed no signs of letdown from this past weekend with a 25-5, 25-8, 25-14 sweep of the Wolves in a Class 2A-District 1 win at home.
“I think the kids came out and maintained a good level of intensity,” said Oak Hall coach Perry McDonald. “We had a fun competitive weekend, and I think we came out on the short end in a couple of matches because we just didn’t execute at a consistent enough level.”
Oak Hall, which defeated P.K. Yonge but lost to Columbia (Lake City) and Buchholz this past Saturday, was the aggressor.
The Eagles took a quick 6-0 lead in the opening set thanks to the serving of senior libero Sophie Thompson (5 aces), who had three aces to spark the early momentum.
“She did a wonderful job,” McDonald said. “Her serving can be very good. The thing I really loved most is not only was she serving them out of system, but she was fast to get to her defensive position and to play the balls on top of Cassidy (McDonald) so that our offense flows smoothly. We were in system almost all night long and that makes us a lot more dynamic and difficult to defend.”
The Eagles (9-2) also added a 5-0 run and a 7-0 run, including the final two kills by senior Shyla Arki for a 25-5 win and a 1-0 lead.
McDonald (7 kills, 10 digs, 23 assists) had a pair of aces and a pair of kills in the first set, including seven service points.
“Cassidy is really playing at a high level, and she’s doing a heck of a job being asked to do a whole lot of different things on this team,” McDonald said about his daughter. “We don’t have really a go-to hitter on the team and when you see a team that runs a 5-1 and your setter is putting up these type of kill stats it probably gives you a little bit of insight as to the fact that we’re trying to be as balanced as we possibly can so I think she did a great job of incorporating a lot of hitters into the game, finding kills in a lot of different ways, and when she’s able to keep defenses off balance it really helps us become a lot more effective and it creates single blocks for our other hitters.”
In the second set, an ace by St. Francis Catholic junior Morgan Ritten and an Oak Hall attack error gave the Wolves (2-4) a quick 2-0 lead.
However, Oak Hall went on a 5-0 run, highlighted by a pair of aces by junior Haley Janes, and then put the game away with a 13-0 run for a 19-4 lead.
Junior Hannah Timm had six of her seven kills during the second run.
“She was fantastic, and the neat part with Hannah is that she was hitting with some of the best variety that I’ve seen her use all season,” McDonald said.
Senior Sara Duggan (3 aces) finished off the second set with a kill and added an ace as the Eagles scored the final four points for a 25-8 win.
In the third set, sophomore Paige Sherrod had four of her six kills, and junior Lizzie Cannon (6 kills) had three straight kills late for a 22-11 lead.
“Lizzie was strong,” McDonald said. “She had some really brilliant swings as well. I love seeing that from Liz. Great kid, great dynamic and again I felt as an outside hitter she did a really wonderful job tonight.”
Oak Hall finished the night with 18 kills, including the final point of the night from Thompson (5 aces).
Senior Sarah Miller had eight digs and sophomore Nicolette Aulisio added five assists for the Eagles, who will travel to Countryside Christian on Thursday night at 6:15 p.m.
Oak Hall, which has a key district game at P.K. Yonge next Thursday, Sept. 19, at 6 p.m., will play at St. Francis Catholic on Thursday, Oct. 3.
“Any district match is a special match especially when you’re trying to play the MaxPreps algorithm game,” McDonald said. “We’ve been really successful with that the past three or four years where we’ve been able to schedule effectively and get seeded well enough that it gave us some advantages going into the playoffs.”
