{"id":503587,"date":"2026-10-22T01:28:16","date_gmt":"2026-10-22T01:28:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/503587\/"},"modified":"2026-10-22T01:28:16","modified_gmt":"2026-10-22T01:28:16","slug":"oakland-volleyball-falls-to-science-hill-in-class-aaa-semifinals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/503587\/","title":{"rendered":"Oakland volleyball falls to Science Hill in Class AAA semifinals"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Oakland senior Carolina Bauer (5) pushes a shot overtop the combination block of Science Hill\u2019s Clara McBride (13) and Lucy O\u2019Daniel in the Class AAA state semifinals. JIM DAVIS <\/p>\n

An upset loss to Siegel in the District 8-AAA championship nearly fueled Oakland volleyball to its first TSSAA state championship appearance.<\/p>\n

A motivated Patriots rode the defeat to a region title over Stewarts Creek<\/a> and their first TSSAA state tournament berth with a sectional win over Soddy Daisy<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

They later swept Collierville in their state debut on Tuesday <\/a>\u2013 and pulled within a set of clinching a spot in Friday\u2019s title match at MTSU\u2019s Murphy Center \u2013 before falling to Science Hill 3-2 (25-18, 20-25, 13-25, 25-11, 15-7) in Wednesday\u2019s Class AAA semifinals.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the momentum just kind of shifted in that fourth set a little bit,\u201d Oakland coach Avei Logoleo said. \u201cWe got down a couple points and we kind of let it snowball. (We) did our best to try to fight out of it, but sometimes it just doesn\u2019t go your way. Overall, I think the momentum swung their way and they took advantage.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Patriots (26-10) built a comfortable 2-1 lead after dropping the opening set to Science Hill. The Hilltoppers (43-4) used the momentum from their reverse sweep of defending Class AAA champion Summit on Tuesday to win the first frame after both sides split the first 14 points.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Senior middle blockers Bryleigh Scott and Clara McBride powered Science Hill to the first set win, boosted by a 12-3 run.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Oakland responded in the second set by scoring the first four points. Science Hill rallied to take a brief 14-13 lead midway through the frame before the hometown Patriots scored four consecutive points to force the Hilltoppers to take a timeout.<\/p>\n

Freshman outside hitter Kinsley Richard, Oakland\u2019s leading attacker, started the rally with a kill, and senior middle blocker Cecilia Damron punctuated it with a block at the net. Richard closed the second set with an attack that glanced off a Science Hill blocker to give them a 25-20 win.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was so important, and the girls did a really good job of sticking to our game plan,\u201d Logoleo said of snapping Science Hill\u2019s momentum in the second set. \u201cWe were really trying to give the ball to the setter and take their middles out of the game. And I think we really did that in the second and third.\u201d<\/p>\n

Oakland moved within a set of playing inside The Glass House after running away to a 25-13 win in the third set. The Patriots once again vaulted out to an early 4-0 lead that this time they never surrendered.<\/p>\n

Junior setter Ellie Kate Knox delivered the set-sealing kill with an attack to the back line after a sprawling one-arm save by junior Kinley Northcutt.<\/p>\n

Science Hill answered with its back against the wall, winning the fourth set 25-11. The Hilltoppers excelled from the service line in the set with seven aces.<\/p>\n

They continued their good fortune in the winner-take-all fifth set. Lucy O\u2019Daniel delivered an early ace, and kills by Sofia Pavlovich and Lizzie Clark pushed Science Hill out to a 6-0 lead.<\/p>\n

Oakland drew to within a 7-3 deficit after a kill by junior Amiyah Cobb, but Science Hill scored eight of the next 12 points and clinched its first Class AAA championship appearance.<\/p>\n

The Hilltoppers advanced to face state-title favorite Franklin on Friday, while Oakland vied for third place in Thursday\u2019s consolation bracket.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey made an adjustment and we just couldn\u2019t hang after that,\u201d Logoleo said. \u201cBut my girls did a phenomenal job fighting. I\u2019m so proud of them.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Oakland senior Carolina Bauer (5) pushes a shot overtop the combination block of Science Hill\u2019s Clara McBride (13)…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":503588,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[143,145,144],"class_list":["post-503587","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/503587","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=503587"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/503587\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/503588"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=503587"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=503587"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=503587"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}