As Bradi Rhodes was helping take down the volleyball net Monday evening, it was interesting to think about how a week ago the senior setter of the Oak Ridge War Eagles thought she had already played the last home match of her career when the regular season closed out.
That wasn’t the case as Oak Ridge got to host the bi-district playoff against Westfield, and Rhodes in her teammates got to show out one last time there this season.
It was a good showing, too.
The War Eagles swept Westfield 25-10, 25-17, 25-15 to open the Region II-6A Division II playoffs.
“It’s really cool because last time (on Tuesday against The Woodlands) was supposed to be my last one,” Rhodes said. “To have another opportunity to play in here was really fun.”
Oak Ridge coach Tommie Lynne Sledge couldn’t recall the last time one of her teams had a home playoff game. They tried to stick to the normal routine of showing up at 1 p.m. and going through athletics period and a team meal. It worked just fine.
Oak Ridge (34-11) advances to the area round for the second straight season. It was the second time in four years the War Eagles defeated and eliminated Westfield (16-10), which put up a fight in the third set before Oak Ridge pulled away.
“They had good serve-receive and they fought,” Rhodes said. “We knew that they were going to come in fighting, so we had to take care of business.”
Sledge knew the Mustangs would be a scrappy group.
“I think Westfield fought really hard,” Sledge said. “But I think we did a good job with some precision stuff, like being able to make adjustments, which we’ve been working on in practice.”
Oak Ridge led wire-to-wire in the first set. There was a brief tie and lead change in the second set before Oak Ridge pulled away.
In the third set, Westfield led the lead a couple times at the midway point. Then Oak Ridge went on a 14-3 run to close out the set and match.
Sledge saw a lot of positives, but mostly implored her girls to bask in the moment. Not everyone makes the playoffs in Texas high school volleyball.
“I would like a little more communication and I want to see them have a little more fun,” Sledge said. “That’s what we’ve been talking about. It’s okay to celebrate, get revved up and excited. We’re going to need that for the next round. I’m excited for them to show passion and fight.”
Oak Ridge was balanced offensively with 46 kills as a team. Karli Glover was on fire at times as she led with 10 kills. The junior duo of Gaby Santiago and Leila Ceaser each had nine kills apiece. Sophomores Ally Luke had seven kills and Micah Rusher added six to go along with two blocks and three aces.
Santiago led in digs with 11. Rhodes had 29 assists and eight digs.
Junior Guen Blackburn had 13 assists.
Oak Ridge – in its second consecutive trip to the area round – will face either Cypress Woods or Tomball later this week.
This particular group has never made it past area round and it’s something on their list of goals to accomplish.
“That’s something that we’ve talked about this group is to leave a legacy,” Sledge said. “That would be a big legacy for this group, to make it past the second round. Oak Ridge hasn’t done that in a few years. To have the oppportunity to be playing there…we talked about getting back to work tomorrow, putting in the work and the excitement of what it would look like if we played our best volleyball.”
Oak Ridge last escaped the area round in 2018. That’s something Rhodes and her teammates want to change later this week.
“We are hoping to take a win in the second round and break the area round (losing streak),” Rhodes said.
The Oak Ridge volleyball team celebrates a point during a Region II-6A Division II bi-district match with Westfield Nov. 4, 2024. (Chris Zorzi/SportCast Media)
