The River Oak Charter School (ROCS) Firebirds Volleyball A Team (the eighth graders) had a good game on Tuesday, beating the Pomolita Panthers two sets to none!
The first set was contested, the Firebirds got off to a rough start and found themselves in a 1-4 hole. However, due to a powerful spike by serving specialist Varsity Gaches and a serving run by star setter Lola Pearson ROCS was able to knot the score up at seven-a-piece. The game was back and forth until Gaches was able to go on a serving run of three points, putting the Firebirds up 17-12. In response, the Panthers were able to rally their team, going on a 8-4scoring run and cutting River Oak's lead down to one. That's when the experienced coach Rebekah Martinez called a timeout. "Morale was really low in the first set, that is why I called a timeout" said Martinez. Well, whatever she said, it worked and River Oak was able to close out the first set 25-22.
The second set was a lot different than the first. With River Oak crushing the Panthers 25-2. How did they do it? Well, Varsity Gaches is how they did it, she went on a whooping 22 service point service run, needless to say the Pomolita gymnasium got very quiet very quickly. "I was just in a rhythm an got very focused on it," said Gaches. Lola Pearson sad she "was very happy that they won (the first set), but next round I wanted to win by more because we were the better team in that situation." Both Coach Martinez and left-back Adia Davis said that "serving was a huge focus for this game." Martinez also added that communication was really important.
All in all, it was a good win for the Firebirds and they will want to carry on that momentum when they face Eagle Peak on Monday, September 20th at Eagle Peak Middle School Gym (5pm) Go Firebirds!!!
-Kaleo Olson, 8th Grade
Pictured Left to Right: Daphne Phillips, Sydney Koeppel, Lily Wheeler, Selah Clark, Varsity Gaches, Adia Davis, Kaylee Maynard, and Lola Pearson.
