Blair Oaks volleyball does it one better

In win against Centralia


The Blair Oaks Lady Falcons watch a teammate go up for a shot during Tuesday night's match against
the Centralia Lady Panthers at Jason Gym.
The Blair Oaks Lady Falcons watch a teammate go up for a shot during Tuesday night's match against the Centralia Lady Panthers at Jason Gym.

Last year's Blair Oaks volleyball team needed three sets to take down Centralia. This year's squad did them one better.

The Lady Falcons took out the Lady Panthers in two Tuesday, winning 25-17 and 25-16.

"And our team last year was even better, so it was great to get a good win in two sets," Allison Maxwell said.

The 2013 team, which reached the championship game of the Class 2 District 7 tournament, fell in the first set to Centralia, 21-25, before winning the next two 26-24 and 25-21.

That said, the current Lady Falcons still have room for improvement.

"We made some good plays. We made some really bad plays," coach Joy Northweather said. "And that seems to be where we're at lately, and that's what we need to balance out. We're a month away from where we need to be. We need to be playing a lot better."

Northweather said her team made too many unplayable passes and put too many sets too close to the net.

However, she also felt like her blockers did a good job of getting into position, something Northweather said her team has been working on.

Maxwell led Blair Oaks with three blocks.

"I don't know about me," she said, "but every time I looked, our front line was blocking."

Northweather added: "We're big. We should be blocking a lot of balls."

Though the Lady Falcons won each set by a decent margin, the team started the night off slow.

Centralia was hanging close through the middle of the set, before Northweather called a timeout, and told her team it needed to focus.

"We got chewed out," Maxwell said, "so we knew we had to come out and play better or there would be consequences."

Blair Oaks responded by winning 12 of the final 14 points in the first set.

In the second set, the Lady Falcons pulled away a little earlier, winning five straight points after the team played evenly to at 9.

"Overall, it was a "W,'" Northweather said. "It was a good win."

Ryan Dudenhoeffer led Blair Oaks with six kills, while Maxwell had four and Taylor Stockman had three. Lizzie Rosslan led the way with eight assists and Sadie Turner contributed seven.

Turner, Rosslan and Rebecca Schroeder each had two aces.

The Lady Falcons play Thursday at Hallsville.

Blair Oaks' JV team won in two sets as well, 25-6 25-7, to advance to 13-0 on the year.

Maggie Savage had four kills, and Lanie Berhorst, Katie Loethen and Kaylie Wieberg each had three. Jayde Peters had six assists and Emily Yaeger had three.

Kellie Fredendall had eight aces and a block.

The freshman team also defeated Centralia, 25-11 25-7, to move to 5-3-1.