Whiteoak Lady 'Cats dominate Sciotoville East; move to sectional finals

MOWRYSTOWN — The Whiteoak Lady Wildcats kept their season alive Monday night, and for that, they will be playing for a chance to win a sectional championship for the first time since 2012.

No. 7 seeded Whiteoak defended their home court in their final home match of the season by dominating the Sciotoville East Tartans, a No. 10 seed, in three straight games by scores of 25-10, 25-12 and 25-10 in a match that lasted less than one hour.

"This was a good match for us, but it was also a slow match," WHS head coach Katie Pollard said. "I was still pleased with our movement, but we got caught standing a couple times. Our main thing was our serves … they were outstanding."

The first two matches saw WHS win with their serving and ability to return hits back to the visiting Sciotoville East squad, and the third game was more of the same for the hosts.

Whiteoak's win moves them into a sectional final match with the No. 2 seeded Manchester Lady Greyhounds on Thursday, Oct. 22 at 6 p.m. It will be the third meeting between the two teams this season, with MHS winning the first two matches, both by three games to one.

For the season, WHS is 9-12 overall, winning their past three matches, with wins also against the Lynchburg-Clay Lady Mustangs and Fairfield Lady Lions during the current winning streak.

"The matches we played against them (MHS), we just stopped hitting, but they have some nice players," Pollard said. "We have to block better against them, and we've stepped up that part of our game lately, so we should play better this time."

As for the tournament opener on Monday, in the second game, WHS cruised to a victory, ending it with consecutive aces by senior Morgan Knoblauch for the 13-point game win.

Knoblauch led WHS with 10 aces in the match, a season-high. With five aces in the match was Makayla Risner.

In the third and final game, WHS jumped out to a lead of 3-0 and later led by an 8-2 score with service points by Hannah Maynard, who finished the entire match with six. Later, points by Lexi Jones and Emma Wardlow with hits at the net and kills led to a lead of 10-4. Wardlow finished with 11 digs, 10 kills and three aces, while Knoblauch totaled nine digs and seven kills.

"I can't talk enough about Morgan," Pollard said. "She had many aces in a row in two games, and they were solid serves."

With the third game continuing in favor of the Lady 'Cats as Knoblauch scored a point on a massive spike hit over the net to the side of Sciotoville East.

Following that hit, Knoblauch served WHS to a win as they went from a 15-0 lead to a final score of 25-10, along with help by Wardlow with kills and plays at net. The match ended with serves by Knoblauch.