VOLLEYBALL: Inola sweeps Verdigris, earns first season-opening win since 2016

Aug. 9—INOLA — It has been a long time since Inola volleyball started a season 1-0.

That is thanks in large part to the perennial power that Verdigris has become over the years. According to records obtained from IWasAtTheGame.com, the Lady Longhorns went 2-17 against their intracounty rival from 2013-2022. Of those losses, five were season openers.

Coming into the 2023 season, Inola hadn't won a season opener since 2016 — a 3-0 sweep of Salina. That seven-year streak finally came to an end Tuesday night.

Led by the undeniable talent of senior Saige Day, the Lady Longhorns exacted their revenge on the Lady Cardinals with a 25-18, 26-24, 25-21 sweep at the Inola Indoor Sports Arena.

Inola coach Tyler Swope was ecstatic to get over the proverbial hump that is Verdigris.

"I told the girls, because we start with Verdigris every year, it's been a long time since we've been 1-0," Swope said. "(Verdigris is) easily one of the top-10 teams in 4A. I know people are saying, 'Oh, they had that senior class graduate', but they are dang good, man. So it feels really good to be able to start the season out with a win."

Day was an unstoppable force for the Lady Longhorns from the outside-hitter position, peppering the Lady Cardinals with 15 kills alongside an ace and a block. She saved her best for last, though.

Verdigris came into the third set with confidence after battling back from a 10-point deficit in the second to force extra points, but Day quickly extinguished that momentum with the first three points of the ensuing frame via two kills and a block as part of a 4-0 opening run.

However, the Lady Cardinals rallied their way back to take the lead on three occasions thanks to the combined efforts of Tyler Finch, Gracie Coker and Morgan Keeler.

With Verdigris trailing 6-2, Coker sparked a 7-1 run with a kill, and Finch followed suit with three aces. Keeler and Coker then added a pair of kills to put their team ahead 9-7 before a Sydney Coblentz kill momentarily gave the momentum back to Inola.

After another two ties and two lead changes, Day imposed her will on the Lady Cardinals once more.

Facing a 12-11 deficit, Day spiked consecutive kills to give the Lady Longhorns a permanent lead. That sudden spurt sparked Inola on a 12-3 run that saw its lead grow to 23-15 as Miller Weast and Brooke Walker both collected a pair of kills before Verdigris rattled off four-consecutive points, including two kills from Keeler.

Day ended that comeback effort with her sixth kill of the set, and though the Lady Cardinals managed two more points to trim the deficit to 24-21, Walker delivered the finishing blow with a powerful kill.

Day finished the set with seven points total — six kills and a block.

"She was second on our team in kills last year; Brooke Walker was the leader," Swope said of Day. "We couldn't keep Brooke in the front row; it seemed like we were really just trading points while Brooke was in the front row, so we didn't get her as many swings as we would've liked tonight. We know Saige is going to step up in those moments. I tell her all the time she's almost too aggressive because she's gonna have some errors along the way, but man, we needed every one of those kills from her tonight."

Speaking of Walker, she was a sleeping giant until that final set.

Despite being the team leader in kills last season, the 6-foot-2 senior had only two kills, one block and one ace to show for through the first two sets. She was relatively quiet for most of the third as well, but she eventually erupted for three kills in the latter stages, accounting for all but one of Inola's final four earned points.

"It felt good for me, but it probably felt better for her to be able to swing," Swope said in regards to getting Walker going late. "That's what she's out here to do. We can't coach size, and she's 6-foot-2 with shoes on, so it felt really good to get her going. Going into a tough Verdigris tournament this weekend, we're gonna have to get her going. We can't just show up and expect Saige to get however many kills she got."

Tuesday night was also an unprecedented occurrence for Verdigris.

According to records obtained from IWasAtTheGame.com, the Lady Cardinals hadn't lost a season-opening match since 2013 — a 3-0 loss to Coweta.

Despite that and having a mostly inexperienced lineup, Verdigris was competitive with a 2022 Class 4A state tournament qualifier that returned most of its heavy hitters.

The Lady Cardinals were ahead for a majority of the opening set, leading by as many as four points (9-5). They led as late as 15-14 until Inola — sparked by three kills from Day — went on an 8-0 run to pull away.

In the second set, Verdigris fell behind 20-10 before embarking on an 11-1 run to even the tally at 21. The Lady Longhorns responded with consecutive kills from Day, Coblentz and Walker to reach set point, but coach Caleb Horton's squad answered once again to tie things up at 24 thanks to a kill and an ace from Cambria Boren and another ace from Maggie McSpadden.

However, a Walker block and a Verdigris error gave Inola the win.

"I knew it'd be a rough one," Horton said. "I knew if we were gonna win, it wouldn't be in three, it would be at least four or five. I thought we gave them too many stupid errors. We gave them a lot of hitting errors and stuff. I know we gave up a ton of hitting errors."

Keeler was the Lady Cardinals' leading point scorer, accounting for nine kills and one ace. Six of her 10 points came in the third set when she tallied five kills and an ace.

Coker (five kills, one ace) and Boren (four kills, one block) were also significant contributors for Verdigris, keeping the team competitive throughout the contest.

"I'm pleased with a lot of it," said Horton, who suited up only nine varsity players. "Tyler did great, and Morgan exceeded my expectations. I'm pretty pleased with our prospects for the season. We are still as scrappy as we were last year, we just made a couple of boneheaded plays here and there. We'll get smarter, and we'll get more seasoned. We have about three girls with any varsity experience, so this is like Super JV for them. They're not quite used to the tempo and the speed, so they'll get better. I think our room for growth is a lot more than the other teams that have had varsity players for years.

"There's a lot of pressure to varsity, and the kids don't understand that. They think the next level from JV is automatically, 'I get to be varsity, it's the same thing', but it's a totally different game."