In seniors’ final home match, Tigers battle to a 3-1 win over St. Albert
CHRIS ALLISON
Sports Reporter
It wouldn’t be easy, but the Red Oak Tiger volleyball team made sure the senior class would have a win in its final regular season home match.
Red Oak fought off a tough St. Albert team to win the match 3-1, which featured four close sets, 25-20, 26-24, 26-28 and 25-23. With the win, Red Oak extends its season-best winning streak to eight, improving their overall record to 19-9.
Red Oak started the first set off slow, trailing 6-0. Red Oak worked on taking the lead until they were up 16-12. St. Albert rallied to tie the score at 20-20 before Red Oak scored the final five points, including an ace from Sierra Athen to win 25-20.
Red Oak maintained a lead in the second set until St. Albert rallied late to tie the score at 22-22. After both teams scored a couple points, Red Oak finished the set 26-24 with a kill from Angela Mahoney.
St. Albert came out on top in the third set 28-26. The two teams exchanged the lead eight times in the set.
Red Oak and St. Albert continued to exchange the lead in the fourth set. After kills from Red Oak’s Sierra Athen and St. Albert’s Sydney McClaren the score was 2-2. Red Oak started to break the tie at 8-8 with an ace from Sarah Behrens. After kills from Mahoney and Megan Sands and a block from Dana Marsden and Sands Red Oak was up 12-9. St. Albert’s Grace Wettengel stopped the rally with a kill, but Red Oak responded with kills from Mahoney, Marsden, Athen, Hannah Vial, and Brooke Jansen to take a 19-12 lead.
St. Albert’s Kori Lester aced a serve, igniting a St. Albert comeback, which resulted in a 20-20 tie. Wettengel added two more kills as St. Albert pulled away 23-22, but Red Oak didn’t allow any more points winning with two kills from Mahoney at 25-23.
Head Coach Angie Montgomery was impressed with how the girls pulled together and kept balls in play. “We didn’t give up on much of anything. There were times that we fought and found a way,” she said.
Junior Dana Marsden hit the milestone of 1,000 career assists with 53 in the match. “She’s been allowing us to run a consistent offense this year” Montgomery said.
Red Oak’s Vial, Mahoney, and Athen were in the triple digits for kills, with 10, 19 and 13, respectively.
Red Oak will try to extend their eight game win streak Tuesday with matches against Atlantic and Shenandoah.