HS Volleyball: Grizzlies Secure Thrilling Victory Over Cavaliers in a Nail-Biting Battle

Grand Oaks (22-6) secures a thrilling victory at home over College Park (18-7) in a nail-biting 5-set battle!

The Grizzly student section showed out filling up the rows with students dressed from head to toe in blue. While the Cavaliers sat across the way filling the grizzly stands with white. The student sections were in constant chanting battles to bring heat and energy to the girls.

Going into the first set the Cavaliers took the game by storm keeping up with the Grizzlies and at most parts of the set being a point or two ahead.

The grizzlies took advantage of Junior Halle Thompson and Senior Samara Coleman throughout the game having them hit from the outside and the backrow. The Cavaliers, knowing they’d be playing against strong hitters, placed an aggressive backrow with Senior Madison Whitfield, Senior Anna Leland and Senior Madison Morgan.

While down 14-17 strong consistent blocking from Senior Gianna Malone led the Grizzlies to a first set victory 25-23.

“I remember telling myself “you will get this block” no matter what it takes” Gianna Malone said “and after I got my first one I kept going”.

Going into set two, the cavaliers Middle Blockers, Baylor Commit Junior Lacy Tinnell and Senior Sarah Arroyo-Fontecha showed out. Tinnel was a big contributor to the offense, every ball hit was seemingly unplayable by the grizzlies. While Arroyo-Fontecha, shut down all backrow attacks with a big block.

“I really focused on trying to read their swing as well as making sure I was pressing over the net” Arroyo-Fontecha said “my game plan was to get as many touches as possible to slow down the ball and make it easier for our back row”

Efforts by Coleman, and Sophomore middle blocker Adalynn Smith to throw the Cavaliers defense off helped the Grizzlies stay in the game but inevitably lost to the Cavaliers in set two 25-20.

“Even if mixing different shots up wasn’t working, I just had to trust my teammates were going to back me up and physically and mentally be present,” said Coleman.

The 3rd set was a big upset for the grizzlies, the cavaliers went on a run and never looked back. Right back and Middle back player Anna Leland showed competition for Colemans strong swing not letting the ball drop.

Setter Nancy Dong and Defensive specialist Madison Whitefield, went on 4 point serving runs helping secure a 25-10 win.

“When I was serving, I knew I needed to serve really aggressively to get them out of system, and serving is a really important part of any game,” said Dong.

The 4th set started like the 3rd set with the Cavaliers taking the lead and running with it. It wasn't until a timeout by the grizzlies at 13-19 that things started to change on the home side.

“We knew we needed to settle down and make the needed adjustments” said Grand Oaks Head Coach Morgan Rogers.

Just that was done after being down an amazing pancake save from Junior Libero Cali Reece and a strong put down From Thompson gets the grizzlies back in the game.

At 14-19 defensive specialist Macie Gonazalez was put in the game to serve in place of the libero. Gonzalez serves two aces and gets multiple digs and strong out of system sets putting the game at 17-19.

“I was definitely nervous going on to the court but I used it to my advantage and just kept thinking to myself “me and the game. It’s just me and the game.” said Gonzalez “I knew it was a huge spot for me to get called in and serve but i took the score out of my head and just played the game like i know how to play”

A thrilling point for point game takes place after Gonzalez's serve, where Grand Oaks takes the win 27-25.

The 5th set was another point for point set. The Grizzlies strong offense went hard against the Cavaliers defense, who put up a fight never letting the ball drop. At 10-7 the grizzlies turned on the heat and finished the game 15-11.

“An extremely well-played match by CP. They put our backs against the wall and forced us to be extremely uncomfortable for the majority of the match” said Coach Rogers. “But, I could not be more proud and happy with the response from our team tonight. It wasn’t always pretty and it wasn’t always the best, but they found a way to dig out of a huge hole we were in and win AS A TEAM”

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