Madison Burris scores 7 aces in Senior Night victory over Bartlesville

Photo: Morgan Miller

By: Scott Emigh, Editor-in-Chief

The No. 13 ranked Charles Page High School varsity volleyball team (24-13) won their final match of the regular season Tuesday night at home, and celebrated Senior Night with a 3-1 victory over the No. 17 Bartlesville Lady Bruins (12-18). 

Sand Springs: 72 kills, 39 errors
Bartlesville: 42 kills, 26 errors

SS Kills: Mutiri 19, Kersgieter 14, Burris 9, Youngblood 6, Cypert 3, Leslie 2, Ward 2, Taylor 1, Bradshaw 1. 
BV Kills: McPhail 13, Lindsly 5, Covell 5, Culver 4, Krause 3, Tisdale 1, Kirchner 1.

SS Assists: Burris 24, Ward 18, Youngblood 1, Cypert 1.
BV Assists: Britt 27.

SS Blocks: Mutiri 7, Kersgieter 3, Youngblood 3, Leslie 2, Burris 1.
BV Blocks: McPhail 6, Krause 5, Lindsly 4, Culver 2.

SS Aces: Burris 7, Youngblood 3, Ward 2.
BV Aces: Tisdale 1.

SS Digs: Mutiri 9, Kersgieter 7, Mudd 6, Taylor 5, Ward 4, Burris 2.

The Lady Sandites will be graduating three senior this year: two players and one manager. Baylee Mudd plans to attend Tulsa Community College where she will major in Sonography. Lee Leslie is undecided on where she will attend college, but intends to major in Business Marketing and wants to play collegiate volleyball. Malany Benton plans to attend Oklahoma State University to study Canine Rehabilitation. 

The seniors from both teams were celebrated before the game and presented with flowers.

Sand Springs started off the first game hot, taking a 7-1 lead thanks to aces from Devree Youngblood and Madison Burris. The first two Bruin points came on combined blocks from Madi McPhail and Callie Krause. Those two would combine for eleven blocks over the course of the four games. 

Sand Springs held a significant lead through the entirety of the first set and wrapped it up 25-17, scoring sixteen points and committing only seven errors. The Bruins were held to a mere ten points and committed nine errors. 

The Bruins never led in the first game, and only led once in the second game after the opening serve from the Sandites traveled out of bounds. Bartlesville returned the service error on the next rally, and the Sandites scored four straight points on a trio of kills from Ohio State commit Gloria Mutiri and a kill from Burris. 

Once again, after the Sandites got going, nothing slowed them down and they prevailed to a 25-18 victory. This time Bartlesville committed only four errors, but the Sandites were on fire and scored 21 points with six kills from Holly Kersgieter and seven from Mutiri, while holding the Bruins to only eight kills. Sand Springs committed ten errors in that set.

In the third set the Sandites started out hot with a kill from Youngblood, an error from Bartlesville, and back-to-back Youngblood aces to lead 4-0, before committing three straight errors to allow a tie at 6-6. The girls got back in rhythm and regained the lead at 12-7 before once more allowing a tie at 12-12. This pattern of building then relinquishing leads would persist until back-to-back errors gave Bartlesville their first lead of the game at 24-23. A kill from McPhail gave Bartlesville the set, 25-23. Sand Springs scored sixteen points and committed eleven errors while the Bruins scored fourteen points but only committed seven errors. 

The fourth game was equally matched and tied up six times. The Sandites led or tied all the way till the end before the Bruins were once more allowed to take the lead at 21-20, but this time the Sandites surged to a 25-21 victory after a block combo from Mutiri and Leslie. The Sandites scored nineteen points to the Bruins' ten, and committed eleven errors to the Bruins' six. 

The Sandites will return to action at the Regional Tournament in Edmond on Tuesday, October 11 and will play No. 4 Edmond Santa Fe (21-8), No. 18 Yukon (9-18), and Moore (5-22). Sand Springs hasn't played Santa Fe or Yukon yet this season, but have beaten Moore six sets to one over two matches at the Broken Arrow tournament. The Sandites are 0-4 against teams that have beaten Santa Fe, while the Lady Wolves are 5-4 against teams that have beaten Sand Springs.