Eagles topple Jags, advance to Super Regionals

The Oak Mountain High School volleyball team will live to fight another day.

The Eagles (26-16) won the match they had to, against Spain Park in the opening round of the Class 7A, Area 6 tournament on Monday at Mountain Brook High School, by sweeping the Jaguars 3-0 (25-23, 25-22, 25-15).

Area 6 is a region that boasts too many quality teams for its own good, which increases the drama level exponentially in the area tournament. Mountain Brook, Oak Mountain and Spain Park are three top-quality 7A programs, but only two could advance out into the super regionals.

That fact made the Oak Mountain vs. Spain Park matchup a desirable one, with the winner advancing and the loser seeing a great season come to a far-too-premature ending.

Both teams displayed a tremendous amount of energy in the opening set, playing to a dead heat at 22-all, before the Eagles won three of the final four points to take the opening set.

Oak Mountain jumped out to a 12-5 lead in the second set, capitalizing on a natural letdown from the Jags after losing a tight set. But the Eagles could not maintain their intensity, and Spain Park cut the lead all the way down to 22-21 with seven consecutive points. But the Eagles recovered once again and took the set, 25-22.

After two near-misses, Spain Park ran out of gas in the third set, and saw its season conclude.

The win qualified Oak Mountain for the Class 7A Super Regionals, to be held Thursday and Friday in the South Hall of the Von Braun Center in Huntsville.

“It’s huge,” said assistant coach Michael Heard. “When you’re trying to build a program, you’re trying to build a program every year. Last year, we didn’t make it this far. This year, we do, and we’re trying to propel it into next year.”

In the Spain Park match, Kathryn Beard finished with 21 assists and 11 digs. Ashley Treace registered 13 assists. Keller Lovvorn had 10 digs, while Kendall Scharbert and Torie Denkers had 15 and 12 kills, respectively.

The work was not done for the Eagles, though, as a matchup with Mountain Brook would determine the tournament champ and seeding in super regionals. Oak Mountain was able to grab a set, but ultimately fell short 3-1 (17-25, 25-23, 16-25, 17-25).

In that match, Denkers and Jacoby Sims led the way with 13 kills each, followed by seven from Scharbert. Lovvorn registered 10 more digs, while Beard had 20 assists and 17 digs. Treace finished with nine assists.

“It’s a little bit of both,” Heard said when asked whether the team was excited or disappointed with the day’s results. “Mountain Brook’s an excellent team. We have to play our best game to have a shot. But our season gets to continue; we get to go to super regionals. We get to live to see another day. So I’m happy about that. Our kids played hard.”

Oak Mountain will face Area 8 champion Bob Jones on Thursday at 3:30 p.m. in Huntsville, needing a win to advance to the state tournament at the Birmingham CrossPlex.

Spain Park finishes the season with a 26-15 record, its best showing in three years under Kellye Bowen, who has brought the team from nine wins in 2014 to where the program is at now.

The Jags graduate eight seniors in Karlee Moss, Olivia Smith, Emily Colpack, Naomi Pitts, Caroline Francis, Christina Renta, Ellie Norton and Ali Close, who paved the way for the Jags to become a consistent contender in Class 7A under Bowen’s guidance.

Spain Park will look to two of the best hitters in the area in Marlee Johnson and Sha’Kevia Hogan to build around next fall.