Lindbergh Defeats Oakville for District Volleyball Title

The Lindbergh Flyers felt sweet revenge Wednesday night as they defeated Oakville in three close games (20-25, 25-19 and 29-27) for the district title at Oakville High School.

“They’ve played hard, they didn’t let down,” said Oakville coach Morgan Lucas about her team. “I just hate it for my seniors, they worked really hard all year and it would have been nice to bring home that title.”

Oakville knew the Flyers would come out hard after they defeated Lindbergh for the conference title on Senior Night. The Tigers took the first game by a margin of five, 25-20, but Lindbergh came out strong in the second game.

After taking an early 6-2 lead, Lindbergh’s defense proved its worth and the Flyers kept a steady lead the entire game. Oakville struggled with serve receive and was on the bad luck end of several tips, losing 25-19.

After the loss, Lucas told her team to be more aggressive.

“(I said) we’re 25 points away from a district title. Don’t stand around and let someone else do your job,” she said. “Especially in game two, we were waiting for somebody else to do our job instead of taking care of it ourselves.”

The third game was a point-by-point struggle for both teams. Flyer senior Jill Harmon came alive in the third game and recorded 13 kills for the evening.

“I’m ecstatic,” Harmon said after the game. “We’ve never won before. I’m still shaking. Those last points, they gave me a heart attack.

“It means so much (to win), I don’t know if I’ll play in college. It could be my last game, so I want to play every one to the fullest.”

The momentum seemed to be in the Tigers’ favor when they took a two-point lead in the third game at 21. Annie Leonard dove to recover a Lindbergh tip and Abby Ullo continued the play, delivering a perfect ball for Sarah Stepp to overhand over the net. The Tiger momentum continued with kills from Sarah Makowski and the blocking of Makowski and Leonard.

But a missed serve and a hit into the net ended the Tigers’ season 29-27 in Lindbergh’s favor.

“We had too many unforced errors down the stretch,” Lucas said. “You have to eliminate those unforced errors. You have to keep the ball in play, allow your defense and blocking to do their job.”