Saturday’s Saks Invitational tournament was déjà vu all over again for the Piedmont Bulldogs. Piedmont ended as tournament runner-up for the second consecutive year, losing in the finals to Class 6A Oxford for the second straight year.
“I was pleased. I was very pleased,” noted Piedmont coach Grace Strott after the tournament ended. “We’ve come a long way since our last play date a month ago.”
The Bulldogs looked to capitalize on their tournament momentum at Glencoe yesterday with games against West End and Glencoe.
Today, the Bulldogs play at Weaver. The first home match will be next Tuesday, Sept. 2, against Weaver and Cleburne County. All home matches this year will be at Piedmont Elementary School’s Victory Gym.
After losing two hotly contested games to Oxford in pool play 25-23 and 25-23, Piedmont threatened to reverse the outcome in the championship match.
After one complete rotation, Piedmont led game one 16-9. Oxford never got closer than two points thereafter and the Bulldogs won 25-20. A kill by senior Miranda Stewart sealed the win.
At the midpoint of the second game, Piedmont led 13-12. Then, with the score tied at 14-14, Oxford pounded home three straight service aces. The Yellow Jackets never trailed again and won 25-20.
Neither team managed a lead of more than two points for much of game three. At 8-8, Oxford ran off three consecutive points and one rotation later got three more aces in a row to close a 15-9 win.
Piedmont defeated White Plains (25-20, 25-20) in its opening pool play match before falling to Oxford. In their third and final pool play match the Bulldogs needed a win over Lincoln to advance to the semifinal round.
The Golden Bears won the first game 25-20. Piedmont regrouped to win 25-14 and 15-10.
“That showed a lot of character,” Strott said.
Strott said she felt that last year’s success had a lot to do with the way this year’s Bulldogs played when they faced the must-win situation against Lincoln.
“The ‘want’ to win and the ‘want‘ to be successful, I don’t think we’ve ever had that until last year,” said Strott.
Piedmont downed Wellborn 25-21, 25-17 in the semifinals to earn its rematch with Oxford. Wellborn had gone 3-0 to win the tournament’s other four-team pool.
For the day, senior middle Tara Blanchard had 20 kills, eight blocks and six aces.
Outside hitters Stewart and Raven Prater recorded 16 kills each. Outside hitter Paige Smith and libero Catie Hightower were strong at the service line with nine aces and seven aces respectively.
Senior setter Brittany Strott had 65 assists, nine kills and eight aces. Junior Janissa McKinney had 13 blocks to lead the defense.
More experience playing together should make the Bulldogs even more competitive.
“I don’t know if the chemistry on the team is set yet,” said Strott. “I think our chemistry got better as the day went on but we’ve still got some people who don’t know their roles on the team yet.”
