OHS Ladies knock Chester out of volleyball playoffs

This week, the OHS Varsity Lady Panthers took a trip to visit the Chester Lady Jackets. Oakwood had a blast! Chester? Not so much. The Lady Panthers took all three games with 25-16, 25-14, and 25-10. Knocking Chester out of the playoffs put Oakwood another step closer to that district title.

OHS had a bit of a rough start in the first game. With 11 balls hitting the floor untouched, these girls will be working off a debt they owe to Head Coach Stephanie Lucio...extra practice drills times 12. (They let one slip in the second game.) Ouch! Lucio's girls may have taken a few dings but they put in a few of their own. Lisa Stevens and Felicia Williams both had awesome serving games with 12 service points and an ace each. Christina Hudson put up 4 service points and Angela Johnson put up one of her own. Those stats amount to a total of just 29 of the points for the night. The other 46 points were earned through teamwork and hard work as the Lady Panthers attacked the Lady Jackets with their volleys. Felicia also had an awesome kill score for this match. She had three in the first game, two in the second, and another one in the third. Stevens got her a kill in the second game while Melanie Minter got hers in the third. Hudson had three tips for the night and Felicia picked one up as well.

The Lady Panthers had been looking forward to playing Latexo Friday night but were disappointed when they declined to come to Oakwood. O.I.S.D. made the decision to shut down the schools from Wednesday through Friday of this last week due to the high number of students and staff out with the flu. Monday was a scheduled Teacher In-Service Day. (Classes resumed on Tuesday.) According to Lucio, Latexo did not feel comfortable in coming to Oakwood and were afraid their players would get sick. Lucio tried to explain that both coaches and players on the OHS team had their flu shots and no one was sick; they still declined. They did not feel it was in the best interest of their players to attend. Although Latexo is not in the running for the district title and therefore a forfeit will not affect their status, an executive conference will be held to determine if they will have to forfeit to Oakwood or if the game will have to be rescheduled. In the meantime, Oakwood will travel to Apple Springs tonight to continue their quest for the district title.