Oak Mountain sweeps tri-match with Calera, John Carroll
Published 10:48 am Wednesday, October 16, 2019
By ALEC ETHEREDGE | Sports Editor
BIRMINGHAM – Gearing up for postseason play and an important area tournament matchup with the Thompson Warriors, the Oak Mountain Eagles were able to kick off the final week of the regular season in dominant fashion with a tri-match sweep at John Carroll on Tuesday, Oct. 15.
The Eagles beat host John Carroll 2-1 and swept county-foe Calera 2-0 in two strong efforts to continue an impressive season.
The thrilling match of the event kicked off the night when the Eagles took on the host Cavaliers looking to start the tri-match with a momentous victory.
And the Eagles couldn’t have asked for a better start, as they flew out of the gate against John Carroll. After the home team failed to win on first serve, giving Oak Mountain the first point of the opening set, the Eagles won the next nine points on serve to take a 10-0 lead.
Oak Mountain eventually made it 11-2, but the Cavaliers then strung together a run of their own winning six points of their own to cut the deficit to 11-8.
The Eagles eventually extended the lead back to seven points at 17-10, but John Carroll battled back to within four on a couple of occasions. Oak Mountain, however, was able to hold off a few late runs to pick up a 22-25 victory in the first set.
After that strong showing in the first set, the Eagles entered the second set looking for a quick sweep. But they were in for a tough battle.
The match was a back-and-forth bout throughout the set with the lead changing on several occasions and neither taking more than a two-point lead.
Every time Oak Mountain took the lead, the Cavaliers bounced back and would go ahead. That continued all the way up to a 26-26 tie, but after the Eagles failed to win serve and gave it back to John Carroll with a 27-26 lead, the Cavs made it count by closing out the set with a 28-26 victory to even the match at 1-1.
That led into a third-set tiebreaker between the two, but whether it be from the disappointment of losing the second set the way they did or just finding their form again, the Eagles left no doubt in a dominating 15-2 victory to complete the 2-1 victory.
Oak Mountain took advantage of that dominant showing in the tiebreaker and carried it over, as the team’s impressive night continued in the first set against Calera.
The Eagles started the match with a 25-8 win in the first set to set the tone, and continue their dominant presence.
While the second set was closer, they were able to complete the sweep with a three-point 25-22 win to close out the match and pick up back-to-back wins in a short span of time.
John Carroll then went on to sweep Calera in the closing match of the night with wins of 25-21 and 25-15.