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  • SHS sophomore Catabrean Baumann sets during Stillwater’s match against top-ranked Bishop Kelley Tuesday. Jason Elmquist

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  • Stillwater High senior volleyball player Peyton Meacham goes up for a tip over a Bishop Kelley defender Tuesday at Pioneer Fieldhouse. The Lady Pioneers lost to top-ranked Bishop Kelley in five games. Jason Elmquist

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  • Stillwater High senior Tessa Meeks serves up the game-winning point in the first game against No. 1-ranked Bishop Kelley Tuesday. Jason Elmquist

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August 14, 2012

Stillwater High volleyball falls to top-ranked Bishop Kelley in five games

By Nick Snow nicksnow@stwnewspress.com

STILLWATER, Okla. — As the Stillwater High School volleyball players walked out of the Pioneer Fieldhouse, you would think they just pulled off the biggest upset in school history.

It turns out, the Lady Pioneers gave Class 6A No. 1 Bishop Kelley all it could handle but the Comets finally sealed their 3-2 match victory with a 15-10 win in the fifth set.

“It was so exciting,” Stillwater senior Tessa Meeks said. “As a team, we played so well. Some of us haven’t played together before this season. It feels good to be together and share in this moment.”

The night started with Kiley Josey’s block to give Stillwater (2-1) the first game 27-25. It ended with the fans that remained giving the Lady Pioneers a standing ovation as they walked off the court.

From the start, Stillwater showed it wasn’t going to be intimidated by the taller, more athletic Comets. The senior duo of Peyton Meacham and Josey match Bishop Kelley’s hitters point for point in the first game, never trailing by more than three.

Trailing 21-24, Stillwater rattled off five straight points with kills from Meacham and Josey before Josey’s block gave Stillwater a 27-25 victory in the first game.

“Honesty, when you face a No. 1 seed, you run through all the scenarios that you can in your head,” Webber said. “You just don’t know which one will come out. Your girls can play like champions the way that you’ve trained them or they could freeze up and become confused and disoriented. But they didn’t do that. They kept their heads the entire time.”

Bishop Kelley took the second set 25-16 and the third set 25-15, but a 12-4 run in the fourth set helped Stillwater take control.

From there, Meeks’ ace after a kill from Kaitlyn Cotton provided the spark Stillwater needed to take the fourth game 25-16.

“This game was about the team, and there was a definite moment where the team said, ‘We’re going to go out there and fight,’” Webber said. “There’s just a different tone from normal that I knew that they could do it. When they committed to that fight, that they came out victorious. It’s just the idea of playing one ball at a time, finding the game that they can play, and execute to the best of their ability.”

By the fifth set, Stillwater seemed to run out of gas as Bishop Kelley junior Josie Gandall tallied three kills and an ace within a five-point span giving the Comets just enough room to escape with the win.

Meacham led Stillwater with 13 kills, while Josey added 9 kills. Josey also had an ace, while Meeks had two aces.

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