Oakville Edges Senior Night Win Over Mehlville

Combine a Mehlville versus Oakville rivalry game with Oakville’s Senior Night and Mehlville’s Green Pit, and you have an electrifying atmosphere.

But despite the Panthers’ boisterous student section, the Tigers pulled out a win at home in three games, 25-18, 23-25 and 25-19.

The Panthers’ rotation was missing starting setter Austin Rademeyer, who broke his foot Friday. John Allen stepped in to fill the spot.

“He had about 20 minutes worth of practice and he went out and did an awesome job,” Mehlville coach James Fischer said. “With one, two more days of practice, we would have won that game.”

The defense-centered Mehlville knew they’d have a challenge with Oakville’s Jake Duckworth, who leads the team with 131 kills for the season.

“At the end, we knew it was going to him and he still put it down. He’s a good player and he showed up,” Fischer said.

Oakville took the first game with a comfortable 25-18 score, but the second game turned into a battle of hitters.

Duckworth and Mehlville’s Eric Hoyer traded kills for the rest of the night; Duckworth ended with 14 while Hoyer led his team with 13. Tiger senior Zac Rankin added six kills and Mehlville’s Mark Leininger had five.

Despite a 7-7 tie to start the second game, Oakville pulled ahead 20-13. But Hoyer and Leininger rattled off nine serves and the game was tied at 22.

With the momentum in Mehlville’s favor, an Oakville block deflected out-of-bounds and Hoyer put down a kill to give Mehlville the 25-23 victory.

“We turned into spazzes and then we can’t collect it and that’s how it’s been the whole season,” Oakville coach Kelsey Husak said. “We started making unforced errors on our side and we seem to never gain that back mentally.”

In the third game, Oakville started serving aggressively when their hits weren’t touching the floor.

“They dug everything,” Husak said about Mehlville’s defense. “They are crazy scrappy, we tried to serve aggressively to get them out of system, but when they were in system, we couldn’t put anything down.”

Oakville’s serving gave them the edge in the third game with aces from Duckworth and senior Austin Bennett. The Tigers won 25-19.

“It feels incredible,” Bennett said about the win. “We came in with some momentum and pumped ourselves up to come up with a win.”

Bennett, Rankin and fellow senior Zach Klipsch were recognized before the game as the team’s seniors.

“They’re great kids, they are smart, they are energetic everyday at practice,” Husak said. “They work the hardest on the team.”