Oak Ridge Lady War Eagles stifle competition to 3-0 day at Magnolia Volley-Battle

MAGNOLIA, Texas- The Oak Ridge Lady War Eagles (10-2) continue their run of strong play by beating St. Stephens in their opening matchup at the Magnolia Tournament Volley-Battle hosted at Magnolia High School. The results for the matchup were 25-15, 25-11. Oak Ridge took commanding leads in both sets and were never really challenged. After a solid 5-2 record in the Duncanville Tournament last weekend, the Lady War Eagles learned a lesson that they hoped to put into action this time around.

“A lack of coming out ready to play in one match cost us second place,” said Oak Ridge Head Coach Tommie Lynne Sledge. “So we are seeing that right now, knowing we can’t leave it up to any other teams. We have to take care of our business so we don’t get put in a situation where it’s out of our control, like Duncanville was out of our control at the very end.”

The players taking charge in the St. Stephens game were Victoria Harris with eight kills, one ace, and six digs. Brooke Clarke added seven kills, and Jackie Ward added 22 assists for the contest.

“I loved our consistent drive to keep pushing, said Sledge. “We didn’t let them get any run of points on us. Just very consistent, can’t express how different that is from the past.”

Coach Sledge expected the next two games to be even cleaner and played at a higher quality than St. Stephens, and she definitely got her wish, with straight set wins over Willis and Cy Ranch.

The results mean Oak Ridge wins pool D and move on to a morning round of pool play games tomorrow, starting at 9am against Tomball, followed by games at 11am against Concordia, and 1pm against Klein Collins. After that round is complete, teams will be seeded for championship bracket Saturday and play until there is a tournament champion.