This one was more special.
The top seeded Oak Hall School volleyball team swept visiting P.K. Yonge 25-20, 25-19, 25-10 in a small school Alachua County showdown to win the FHSAA Class 2A-District 1 championship.
Eagles coach Perry McDonald, who announced last week he was retiring from coaching, beat his former school to win his fourth straight district title.
“First off, if you give me two or three days to prepare, I can get these kids ready,” McDonald said. “That was priceless. These guys knew everything that was going to come at them, we’ve watched film, we’ve broken things down, I haven’t slept much in the past two nights because of the fact that I’ve had so much anxiety over P.K. That’s a great little team out there and I was thrilled to see them be successful on Tuesday night when they upset Maclay (Tallahassee) in five.”
McDonald’s energy after the match told the story.
“Right now, elation and extraordinary satisfaction is what I feel,” he said. “We always measure how we do by the number of marks we get up on that board (banner). That’s our fourth district title in a row. I feel like a monkey is off of my back and now we can get ready for the fun of the postseason.”
The first set was close throughout with 10 ties until OHS junior Lizzie Cannon broke the tie for the final time with a kill to give the Eagles a 16-15 lead.
“We led for a while there in the first set,” said P.K. Yonge coach Chancie Vice. “We definitely came in as the underdogs, I mean we came into the district semis as underdogs, so just being here was a great experience for our girls.”
Sophomore Paige Sherrod helped the Eagles (16-2) pull away late in the first set, adding her fourth kill for a 22-20 lead that helped Oak Hall close it out with four straight points.
“Paige did a wonderful job as well,” McDonald said. “I’m really proud of our kids.”
Fellow sophomore Kendylle Bishop (10 kills, 2 blocks, 2 digs, three aces) had two of her three aces in the first set.
She also had five of her 10 kills in the second set, including back-to-back kills for a 17-8 lead.
“Boy, she can put on a highlight reel out there,” McDonald said. “She’s definitely maturing into a go-to hitter, and it’s been a fun evolution to see…in the past probably five or six matches you’re really seeing her starting to light it up.”
P.K. Yonge (4-19) battled back to within four at 19-15 on an ace by junior Malia Bukota and an attack error.
After Oak Hall extended the lead to seven at 23-16, a pair of aces by 7th-grader Holdyn Moore got the Blue Wave (4-19) back within four again at 23-19.
However, a service error and a decisive kill by junior Haley Janes gave the Eagles a 2-0 lead.
Perry’s daughter, Cassidy, played a big part in the win. The senior filled up the stat sheet with 29 assists, 13 service points, 11 digs, five kills and three aces.
“Cassidy is the master of coming through and not getting caught up in the compliments or the accolades and just staying grounded and I think that’s kind of rubbing off on me too,” her dad said. “I’m thrilled for the kids. Cassidy is just one more cog in the machine. I’m sure I’ll look back at some point in the next few weeks or months and think, ‘wow, that was really special to be able to do that with her.’”
McDonald had three aces as Oak Hall built a quick 6-0 lead in the third set. The Eagles extended it to an 18-5 lead on a kill by Sherrod.
“I can tell you at moments out there tonight, that was the best ball we’ve played all season,” McDonald said.
Junior Hannah Timm added seven kills and three digs, while senior libero Sophie Thompson had six service points and 19 digs for Oak Hall, which is likely to host a regional quarterfinal on Tuesday.
“We knew that winning the district was going to be brutal,” McDonald said. “We knew that anything that we faced going forward was going to be challenging. In addition to winning tonight we had a very big mantra that we wanted to improve. I think the kids put that mantle on and carried it with pride. There’s still many things that we can improve upon but there were moments we absolutely played the best that we have all year.”
District championship results
Thursday, Oct. 17
Area teams in bold
Rural-District 6 – at Dixie County (Cross City)
1 Branford d. 3 Union County (Lake Butler) 25-22, 25-23, 25-16 – Buccaneers (24-3) district champions
Rural-District 7 – at Higher seed
4 Chiefland d. 2 Trenton 25-15, 25-23, 27-29, 22-25, 16-14 – Indians (11-10) district champions
Class 2A-District 1 – at Oak Hall School
1 Oak Hall d. 3 P.K. Yonge 25-20, 25-19, 25-10 – Eagles (16-2) district champions
Class 4A-District 2 – at Higher Seed
1 Suwannee (Live Oak) d. 2 Wakulla (Crawfordville) 15-25, 15-25, 25-22, 26-24, 15-13 – Bulldogs (16-7) district champions
Class 4A-District 5 – at Santa Fe High School (Alachua)
1 Santa Fe (Alachua) d.2 Crystal River 25-5, 25-11, 25-8 – Raiders (19-7) district champions
Class 5A-District 5 at Vanguard (Ocala)
1 Gainesville d. 2 Lecanto 25-21, 25-19, 25-15 – Hurricanes (15-8) district champions