Blair Oaks Built on Summer Success to Capture Title

<p>There were a handful of teams I was eager to follow this fall and one of those was Blair Oaks. I started following them during their journey at team camp this summer at the University of Nebraska, where they competed well against some high-quality teams. They left Nebraska with a fifth-place finish and libero [player_tooltip player_id="151249" first="Payton" last="Mitchell"] was named best libero. They returned home and instead of taking time off said let’s scrimmage Rock Bridge and Jefferson City, two larger programs, and keep getting better. A week later they went to Licking and won a bracket championship. Mitchell again won an MVP honor and Baily Braun was named to the all-tournament team. </p> <p>This set the stage for what would be a memorable season. This summer we chatted with head coach Megan Distler and she was high on her team and the summer they had. She raved about the performance of Mitchell at Nebraska and how special she was after having set the school digs record as a junior. She knew [player_tooltip player_id="150942" first="Sarah" last="Girard"] would play an important role along the front line. Add [player_tooltip player_id="150016" first="Anna" last="Wekenborg"], key pieces were in place for a strong season after a 23-9 season the previous fall. </p> <p>A couple of young players we saw in the rankings expected to make an impact were [player_tooltip player_id="124226" first="Autumn" last="Bax"] and the before-mentioned Braun. They opened their season with a sweep of Sullivan but would drop their third match of the year to Hermann. A team which high expectations, how they responded would be important losing an early match. They responded well winning their next match and having a good tournament showing, going 4-1 and a third-place finish. </p> <p>They wouldn’t lose again for three weeks which included a tournament championship at Rolla. When we wrote about them in September we highlighted a couple of tough matches that would prepare them for districts and beyond. They would lose to a tough Helias team in four. The following week they would lose their last match to state qualifying Rock Bridge in a high-level contest. Not only wouldn’t they lose again, but they would also only drop two sets along the way to a state championship. They took down Cuba and Fatima en route to a district title. This was a hump the program had been working to get over for a decade, having not won a title since 2010. </p> <p>After capturing their first district title in eleven years, their attitude became why stop here when we can win the whole thing. They would travel to Hallsville for a sectional battle and leave with the school’s first sectional championship and earn the chance to host a quarterfinal match after a sweep. They then had the challenge of John Burroughs in the quarterfinal. Burroughs is led by the top senior in the class in Vannesa Polk. She would end the match with 17 kills but it wasn’t nearly enough as the Falcon’s would win in 4, 25-16, 25-22, 20-25, 25-16. [player_tooltip player_id="124226" first="Autumn" last="Bax"] was electric for Blair Oaks in this contest leading the way with 22 kills at a .341clip. Senior Kennedy Flanner added 12. Wekenborg and Girard worked hard to slow down Polk and combined for 8 blocks total. Setter Madi Rissmiller dished out 50 assists in the match to help lead her team to their first-ever Final Four.</p> <p>Won a district and sectional title and earned a trip to the final four...why stop now? Pep rally and send-off, check. Load nice white charter bus, check. All that was left to do was arrive in Cape Girardeau and finish business. Many had the Falcons as an underdog in the contest but my assumption is they haven’t been following this team since the summer. I didn’t get to do the preview for this match as I left it to my colleague but for the record, no way I was picking against Blair Oaks! </p> <p>They would face Valle Catholic for a chance to advance and they jumped on them fast winning the first set 25-16. You have to remember this team hadn’t faced much adversity in weeks since losing a close match to Rock Bridge and they found themselves in a close one in set two. You can possibly even point to that match as a factor in them closing out a tight second set 26-24 to go up two sets to none in the match. Valle held on for life winning another tight set, 26-24 but those two sets were possibly too much for them and Blair Oaks would dominate the fourth set to win the match, -10. Bax went for 26 kills in the win. Fellow sophomore Braun added 11. Mitchell took care of the defense with a match-high 34 digs. Setter Rissmiller dropped another 50 ball, with 51 assists in the semifinal. This now set the stage for Blair Oaks possibly holding up a big trophy and sizing for shiny rings. </p> <p>They would face Strafford in the Class 3 championship match and though we’ve been talking a lot about the offense it was the defense that stepped up to help the Falcons win their first-ever state championship. They would hold their opponents to a .031 hitting percentage in the three-set sweep. Girard and Bax would combine for 11 blocks and of course, Mitchell had to go out in style with another 20 dig performance so it’s only fitting she accepted and held up the large trophy with a big grin on her face. Madi Rissmiller would earn the single-season assists record with 899. [player_tooltip player_id="124226" first="Autumn" last="Bax"] had no sophomore slump, earning the single-season kills record with 414, and was an absolute monster in the playoffs. Seniors Kennedy Flanner and Mitchell earned AVCA Region 6 all-region honors. Mitchell also signed to play at Washburn University for her next chapter. </p> <p>This is a tad late but congratulation to Blair Oaks! It’s been a blast watching this journey from the summer to now and I want to go on record and say, repeat?!?</p> <p>John Q.</p>