Published: October 08, 2008 12:56 pm      

No. 2 ranked Lady Buffs head to state tournament

It's another trip to the state volleyball tournament for McAlester's varsity program, due to a dominating performance Tuesday at Bob Brumley Gymnasium in winning a regional championship from a four-team field.

Dominating may not be a strong enough word, as McAlester finished each of their opponents off in about an hour or less, sweeping them in the best three-out-of-five games format.

It's also a state tournament appearance for head coach Brook Hall, in her first year of coaching, but she said all the credit goes to her players.

It's a case of being "..very very proud of my girls," Hall said after Tuesday evening's wins.

Hall said she thinks "..that we're going to win it, win it all," in speaking of the coming state tournament, set to be held at Choctaw and Moore high schools next week.

In the first match of the regional Tuesday, Mcalester played Chickasha, whose vocal fan contingent was unable to inspire them to victory over the overwhelming play of McAlester.

Virtually every player on the court for McAlester could have something said about them from Tuesday's volleyball action. In the first game against Chickasha, the Lady Buffs led 19-6 on their way to a 25-8 first-game win.

A second game proved the closest of the regional for McAlester, as the Lady Chicks closed to within four at 23-19, before McAlester claimed the second game 25-20.

Lopsided could be a way to describe the third and final game between the two teams. McAlester led 12-1, and cruised on to a 25-5 win to advance to the championship game.

After Noble defeated Northwest Classen, an Oklahoma City school, and about a half-hour break, the championship game got underway.

The first game stayed even early, with two early ties, before the Lady Buffs went on a 6-0 run to lead 9-3. Another 6-1 McAlester run gave the home team a 15-4 lead.

Noble's Lady Bears would get a little scoring going in mid-game, but not nearly enough, and MHS standout Sabrina Burns ended the game with a kill on a 25-9 score, and McAlester led one game to none in the best-of-five format.

Game two saw the Lady Buffs out to a 6-0 lead before Noble scored. McAlester's Hannah Adams served most of the game, and had a number of aces while she served for the final 15 points of the game, which the Lady Buffs won 25-6.

Third game action started out even more decisively for McAlester, but would turn out to be the closest scoring game of the match. McAlester scored the first 9 points of the game.

It may have just been McAlester cruising to the win, which was taken on a 25-19 score, completing the second sweep of the day for Coach Hall's Lady Buffs.

Virginia Judge and Katie Wills also had some fine play for McAlester in the match.