Oakton Rallies for Big District Win

According to Oakton head volleyball coach Steve Drumm, the Cougars had not beaten Herndon High School in at least eight years. That streak of losses is now over after the Cougars beat the visiting Hornets in four sets, 15-25, 25-21, 25-21, 25-16.

With an eye on postseason play, Drumm said a strong finish to the season will position Oakton for the third seed in the Concorde District tournament, setting the stage for meeting likely avoiding regional power Stone Bridge in the regional tournament and also to satisfy one of the team's goals heading into this season.

"The goal that we had at the beginning of the season was … at least to try to make it to those district finals, to improve on what we did last year," Drumm said.

Those goals—combined with an early district loss to Chantilly and an upcoming match against Concorde District favorite Robinson—made Tuesday's contest of the utmost importance.

"So, we told the girls, you know, Herndon, for all intents and purposes, Herndon is the season. So we need this match. It's at home. The seniors that we have, it's a match we need to win. It's a match that, if we're going to take that next step as a program, we have to win that match, so I was very pleased that they did," Drumm said.

But in dropping the first set, Drumm said his team made mistakes because it was "too amped up."

He went on, "A lot of our passes were too tight to the net ... things that are easily fixable once they calm down, take a breath and just get back to playing basic volleyball which is what they did."

But the Cougars turned things around, in part because, as Drumm put it, his team began to match Herndon's strong defensive game.

"And I think what changed a bit, particularly after that second game, was that we played their game and played really well. I mean, we continued to defend balls, so we got in those long rallies, but we were winning those long rallies. And I think, in matches like that, you start doing that, more often than not, teams are going to buckle a little bit," Drumm said.

Leading the way for the Cougars were senior Marisa Sheffield, who registered 17 kills, and junior Kelsey Wildman, who had 13 kills. Sophomore setter Sami Olson also contributed 25 service points.

Defensively, Oakton was led by senior libero Karalee Thomas' 36 digs, as well Sheffield, who tallied 12 digs.

After the match, Drumm was encouraged by his team's attitude.

"I really felt like they had fun. I mean, it's certainly not fun losing the first game 15-25, but they came into that huddle and said, 'We know. We missed some serves, we're playing a little too amped up, we know what we need to do.' They gave me my, you know, in-between-game speech. I'm like, you said everything that I would say. You know what you need to do, go out and take care of it," Drumm explained.

Herndon will play again Thursday, when they host Concorde District rival Westfield at 7:15 p.m.

Oakton will travel to district power .