With Region II-6A being a combination of Houston and Dallas area teams, there’s a really good chance that if you make a deep playoff run, you won’t have any prior experience against your opponent.
Fortunately for Oak Ridge, the War Eagles have first-hand experience with its semifinal opponent Royse City.
The War Eagles will make the long bus trip north on Interstate 45 Tuesday afternoon to reach Grosbeck High School to play the Bulldogs at 6:30 p.m. in Division II.
Oak Ridge (35-11) defeated Royse City (39-8) 2-1 (best-of-three format) at the Huntsville Tournament back in August. It’s also the second straight season these teams have met as the Bulldogs won the encounter in 2023.
The University Interscholastic League volleyball tournament is one round shorter now that each class was split into two divisions (like football) back in June.
This is Oak Ridge’s first regional semifinal appearance since 2016 while Royse City reached the third round a year ago, but fell to Wylie East to cap a 41-win season.
Royse City became Oak Ridge’s final victim of a 9-0 run at the Huntsville Tournament, which concluded on August 24.
It was a competitive match to say the least as the War Eagles prevailed 21-25, 31-29, 25-22.
The junior trio of Gaby Santiago, Leila Ceaser and Jade Clay, as well as sophomore Micah Rusher pushed the Oak Ridge offense that had a 31.6% kill percentage and .228 hitting percentage.
Santiago had 15 kills, Ceaser had six and Clay and Rusher each had three. Santiago also had a team-high 16 digs for a double-double while junior Samanta Daley had eight and Brookyln McQueary had seven.
Senior Bradi Rhodes led with 15 assists while Daley had 13.
Rewinding back to Friday night, Oak Ridge played with energy from the start in a 25-12, 18-25, 25-20, 25-18 win over Tomball to step past the area round for the first time since 2018.
Oak Ridge went point-for-point early with the Cougars before it got to 12-10 and it reeled off 15 straight points with Rhodes serving to close it out. As the Cougars took the following set, Oak Ridge relied on a mix offense, defense and serve-receive to dispatch of Tomball for the ninth straight time.
Santiago had another double-double against the Cougars, this time with 16 kills and 10 digs. Ceaser had six kills while Rusher had five kills and four blocks. Rhodes finished with 19 assists, three digs and three kills.
Looking over Royse City’s path, the Bulldogs are one win away from 40 for the second consecutive season. They took second in District 10-6A behind undefeated Rockwall.
Royse City has won four straight matches – three of which by sweep – since dropping to Rockwall in five sets on Oct. 22. In the playoffs, the Bulldogs swept Garland in the bi-district round and DeSoto on Friday in the area round by scores of 25-18, 25-17, 25-23.
The Bulldogs are led by Tulsa commit Kylee McCoy, who averages 6.1 kills per set, and also leads the team in digs. Alayana Howard is the setter with over 3,000 assists in her career.
The winner of Oak Ridge-Royse City will face the winner of College Park-Wylie East in the regional championship later this week.
Oak Ridge junior Gaby Santiago (left) and sophomore Micah Rusher (right) slap hands during a match against Westfield on Nov. 11, 2024. (Chris Zorzi/SportCast Media)
