Photo by Keith Stewart
Okaw Valley’s Madison Fox watches the ball after tipping it over the net Thursday against St. Anthony during the Neoga regional semi-final.

•November 4, 2015•

by Keith Stewart
For the NewsProgress

Last Thursday’s regional semifinal match saw Okaw Valley’s volleyball team ousted in a lopsided two-set decision 25-23, 25-9.

Coming into the Neoga regional ranked no. 7, Okaw Valley received a semifinal matchup with no. three ranked St. Anthony, a team whom they had not seen all season long.

And through the first set, it appeared that both teams were evenly matched.

The two sides went back and forth, exchanging points up through a 9-9 tie when the Lady Bulldogs began to pull away.

A service fault called on OV was followed by too deep of a hit by Kristy Burford and then an ace. Megan Dash’s kill attempt would sail out before Nicole Miller’s tip earned the Timberwolves the sideout. Dash would then earn a kill, but her next two attempts would go too far, helping St. Anthony get out to a 16-11 lead before a Dash hit ricochet off Hannah Will. Dash would then put up her best serving of the night, recording two aces to pull within one before a St. Anthony timeout iced her at the line.

Two unforced errors later and OV was back down by four.

But not long after, though down 22-18, the Timberwolves would set out on a 4-0 run with three kills and a tip by Miller. But yet another hit too deep would put the Bulldogs back in the lead, up 23-22. Another Dash kill would tie the game, but then a serve out of bounds and an ace later, and OV dropped the first set.     Login or Subscribe to read the rest of this story.