It was a good run for the Oak Hall volleyball team.

But on Monday night at Polk State College in Winter Haven, the No. 4 seed Eagles fell short of their first state title game appearance since 2005 with a 25-21, 25-14, 25-18 loss to top seed Boca Raton Christian in the FHSAA Class 2A state semifinals.

“It meant a tremendous amount, especially to get here the way that we did,” said Oak Hall coach Perry McDonald, who was sitting next to seniors Pene Moser and Ave Scorpio and junior Cassidy McDonald after the season had come to an end. “Pene, who was playing tonight sick, she’s been really laboring to come through and make it through the day and for her to give us the effort she gave.

“For Ave to be sitting here beside me after she rolled her ankle in practice on Monday and didn’t really get to play much at all versus Christ’s Church last week and then for her to be out there working as hard as she did tonight, I feel extraordinarily privileged to work with two sensational seniors.”

Moser and Scorpio are the only two seniors but McDonald also played a key role in leading the Eagles to their second final four in the past three years.

Perry looked at his daughter and said, “Cassidy, you did a heck of a great job for us this season. You did an outstanding job working hard tonight and keeping the pressure on the other side.”

Collectively, they were a factor despite the outcome.

“The three girls that I’m sitting with right now, all three of them just had strong backs and strong shoulders, and at different times this season all three of them carried us,” McDonald said. “Ave did the job early in the season and led us to an 11-0 start. If she didn’t play absolutely lights out we would not have had that record to begin the season.”

The Eagles went toe-to-toe with the Blazers (27-3) in the first set.

An ace by McDonald tied it up at 7-7, a kill by Scorpio (four kills, one block) tied it 8-8, and Moser‘s kill tied it again at 12-apiece.

But that’s when University of Oklahoma commit Tekoa Barnes started to heat up.

The junior had three straight kills.

“In set one, we were a few plays away,” McDonald said. “We just needed to execute a little bit more consistently, but I love the way kids stepped up right out of the gate. Little Sara Duggan in the back row, the first couple of swings that Tekoa, number three for Boca Raton Christian took, Sara Duggan just dug her right up and that absolutely fueled us to believe that we could make something good happen. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to come through and close out that first set. It would have been neat to see what happened if we did.”

Following an ace by Oak Hall junior Emma Raulerson brought the Eagles within three, 12-9, in the second set, Barnes and sophomore Dasia Johnson quickly extended it to 17-10 and the Eagles never got close again.

Barnes (15 digs) led all players with 19 kills, followed by Johnson with 14.

“She’s special, isn’t she,” McDonald asked of Barnes. “When I looked at her stats last year, I think she had over 700 kills, I thought ‘oh boy, she’s got to be legit,’ and when we saw her warming up I was like, ‘ok, she is who we thought she would be.’”

The Eagles didn’t give up, pulling even on a kill by Moser (eight kills, six digs) to tie the third set at 11-11.

Boca Raton Christian, last year’s state runners-up, threatened to pull away, but McDonald (six kills, six digs) delivered a kill to bring the Eagles within two, 16-14.

Johnson had three kills down the stretch as the Blazers slowly built it up to seven points to advance to its second straight title game.

“She (Johnson) got stronger as the match went along,” McDonald. “I think that she started off a little bit slowly and kind of gave us the crack in the armor where we might have been able to sneak in but she really came through and closed out strong the last couple of stats to credit to Boca Raton Christian, they earned the win tonight.”

Oak Hall (25-5) was the last Alachua County team left standing.

Earlier in the day, Newberry’s season came to an end with a three-set loss to top seed Branford in the 1A state semifinals.

Meanwhile, Boca Raton Christian will play Seacrest Country Day (Naples) at 7 p.m. on Tuesday in a rematch of last year’s Class 2A state championship game.