End of Season Team Recap: Vol. 1

<p>We are recapping four teams in each volume, how their seasons went, and a couple players from each team that stood out. </p> <p><strong>Regent Prep-</strong> They compete in class 4A and their head coach is Mike Christie. They started the year with an impressive 12 game win streak, in route to winning their home tournament by beating Bartlesville and Catoosa in bracket play. They then played in the tough Broken Arrow Tournament, where they finished 7th and 1-4 on the weekend. They got back on track the next week by beating 4A #2 Victory Christian and 6A #12 Sand Springs. They went on to win eight more games, and reached the Port City Classic championship game, falling to 5A #2 Mount St. Mary. They saw Victory Christian in the championship match of the Claremore Tournament, where the Conquerors got their revenge and taking the 1st place trophy home. The Rams had two big players in outside hitters, <span style="text-decoration: underline;">[player_tooltip player_id="144088" first="Beth" last="Bayless"]</span> and <span style="text-decoration: underline;">[player_tooltip player_id="145983" first="Ella" last="Drake"]</span>. They finished the regular season 36-7. Regent won their home regional to punch their ticket to state by beating Tulsa Central and Dewey. They swept the first two teams they played in the state tournament, followed up by playing Victory Christian for the 4A state championship. They both played a fantastic match, pushing it all the way to the 5th set. The Regent Rams fell in the fifth set 16-18, giving Victory Christian their fifth straight state championship. </p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p><strong>Yukon- </strong>They are a class 6A school, coached by Rachel Allred. <span style="font-size: 1rem;">They ended the regular season 9-21. The Millers played a pretty tough schedule this season but they had some quality wins, beating 5A top 10 Piedmont</span><span style="font-size: 1rem;"> and 6A #13 Mustang, both on the road. They won all nine </span>matches on the<span style="font-size: 1rem;"> road. The Millers had a senior middle blocker named <span style="text-decoration: underline;">[player_tooltip player_id="144112" first="Katie" last="Clark"]</span> that was their best player. She was able to put up a big block up, and when in system, was</span><span style="font-size: 1rem;"> a very powerful option out of the middle. They will have a senior next year in <span style="text-decoration: underline;">Tara Reynolds</span> at the six rotation OH position. She is a tall kid that can get on top of a ball if the set is there. Look for her to </span>develop<span style="font-size: 1rem;"> and take over the reigns next season. </span></p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p><strong>Sand Springs- </strong>They are a class 6A school. The Sandites played a brutally tough schedule. Of their 34 games, over half were top 10 teams in their respective classes. <span style="text-decoration: underline;">[player_tooltip player_id="144095" first="Kasidy" last="Holland"]</span>, <span style="text-decoration: underline;">[player_tooltip player_id="144097" first="Jacelyn" last="Smith"]</span>, <span style="text-decoration: underline;">[player_tooltip player_id="145974" first="Layla" last="Lenex"]</span>, and <span style="text-decoration: underline;">Payton Robbins</span> all had nearly 200 kills on the season. <span style="text-decoration: underline;">[player_tooltip player_id="145974" first="Layla" last="Lenex"]</span> set the school record for most blocks in a single season and <span style="text-decoration: underline;">[player_tooltip player_id="144097" first="Jacelyn" last="Smith"]</span> set the record for most aces in a career. They started the first week of the season 7-2. They lost to state qualifier Owasso in four sets, followed by sweeping Collinsville on the road and winning their home tournament. They had solid wins over Bixby and Southeast in the tournament and only one loss to Lincoln Christian. <span style="text-decoration: underline;">[player_tooltip player_id="144126" first="Tehya" last="Johnson"]</span> led the team with 689 assists and set the school record as well.  </p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p><strong>Lincoln Christian- </strong>After losing nearly their entire starting lineup from the year before, many thought this would be a down year for the Bulldogs. While they had other plans, Coach Rader got them back to the state tournament and a first round win. They are a very young team but players like <span style="text-decoration: underline;">Paiton Tuggle</span> stepped up in a big way and helped lead them to a #4 seed in the state tournament. The Bulldogs played some gritty defense and served with the bets of them. Their season came to an end when they lost to Victory Christian in the Semis. Look for this team to be back next season. </p>