Oakville Volleyball Goes 8-2 in Home Tourney

Until they faced Kirkwood Saturday, the Tiger volleyball team was unstoppable in their home tournament, going 6-0 in pool play and defeating Notre Dame 25-10 and 25-16. 

The team faced Jackson and Washington High School Friday night to kick off the tournament. After struggling with serve receive against Jackson and eeking out a 25-23 win, they regrouped with a more dominant 25-17 win in the second game.

"When we pass well, we beat teams," said Tiger coach Morgan Lucas. "We've got two good middle hitters that put the ball away. When they can do that, it opens everything up."

Against Washington, the team came out strong, running several quick hits and tandems. Lucas said she made a point tell her team to think out of the box when it came to hitting. The girls did a drill Thursday where they couldn't hit from the standard outside, middle and right sides. 

"We weren't confident doing that before," Lucas said. "I said, yes, you can hit other things. They were just more comfortable doing that this game."

The Tigers continued their aggressive play Saturday morning against Troy for their last game of pool play. Oakville beat the Trojans in two, earning them the top spot in their pool. 

After rolling through Notre Dame in the first game of finals play, the Tigers faced Kirkwood and fell 25-21 and 25-19.

"We did not play well," Lucas said. "I give a lot of credit to Kirkwood. Their defense was excellent, they were steady in serve receive. We did not pass well and had ineffective blocking." 

Lucas said the match was the worst they had all season, but revenge may come Tuesday as the team faces Kirkwood in Pioneer territory at 5 p.m. 

"We know what we need to do differently," she said. "There's obviously a lot of determination going into Tuesday's match. We want to show up and play well and show Kirkwood we're better than what they saw Saturday."