Oxford Takes Twin Bill from Horn Lake
The Oxford Lady Chargers took down the Horn Lake Lady Eagles twice inside the OHS Gym Tuesday night. In the first match, Oxford won 3-0 (25-7, 25-8, 25-14) and in the second match the Lady Chargers buckled down even more in the 3-0 (25-4, 25-3, 25-3) win. The teams played a double-header with one of the matches being a make-up match that was postponed two weeks ago as Horn Lake was under quarantine and the other a regularly scheduled match. The make-up match was originally supposed to be at Horn Lake High School.
Oxford (4-3 overall, 3-0 in Division 2-6A) took control of the first match mainly due to their offensive play instead of Horn Lake (0-3, 0-2) making errors to score points, and for head coach Ashley Martin it was pleasing to see her team score points in that manner rather than the opposing team gift the Lady Chargers points by mistakes.
“We’re just wanting to get better with that, to get consistent with our hitting,” Martin said. “Against anybody, we want to make sure that we’re getting those good quality reps in. We’re focusing on our hits and we’re getting those reps in and getting good quality hits in.”
In the second match, Oxford’s service game improved as Horn Lake was unable to receive the serves from the Lady Chargers like they were able to do in the first match. While this wasn’t a match to practice receiving serves as Oxford only saw 11 Horn Lake serves in the second match, it is something Martin has been harping to her team about so far through seven matches on the season.
“That’s something that we’ve been drilling in practice every day is some type of serving drill,” Martin said. “Like a more aggressive serving drill than what we have been working on. The more aggressive serves and being more consistent with our serves going over.”
Extra Volleys, Next Match Postponed
Oxford’s Bree Lyons led the Lady Chargers with a night-high 23 kills in the two matches. Ainsley Tacke added 17 kills in the two matches. In a night that didn’t feature many attacks from Horn Lake’s front row players, Madison Jones and Catherine Bianco were the leading defensive players for the Lady Chargers each with a team-high five digs in the two matches.
Oxford’s division match at Southaven on Thursday has been postponed due to the Southaven volleyball team having to quarantine due to COVID-19. Because it is a division match, it must be played and a make-up date has not been announced. Oxford will participate in their first tournament of the season at the Tupelo Volleyfest on Saturday. Oxford will then host the Tupelo Golden Wave next Tuesday. JV will start at 5 p.m. with the Varsity match starting at 6 p.m.
