3A Powdersville Volleyball Beats OCA

By WORTHY EVANS

HSSR Contributing Writer

Columbia - Clinching the second straight 3A state championship proved an enormous challenge for Powdersville Saturday night at Dreher High School.

The Patriots overcame three rough sets against Oceanside Collegiate Academy and settled in just enough to eke out a 24-22 win in the fourth set and clinching the title with a 15-10 win in the fifth set.

“It means so much to us,” head coach Brooke Passini said. “I felt like in the past two games we battled from behind and we just never gave up. We practice that all season in drills just to finish. I’ve already told them, the script is already written, God’s already written your stories so you just come out here, relax and just play.”

The relaxing part was the hardest to achieve in earning the school’s fourth volleyball state crown.

With fiery hitters such as senior Brianna Bowman, junior Amiya Stevens, sophomore Jada McKinney and freshman Payton Moorman, Oceanside Collegiate went up 2-1 with a 25-21 win in the first set and a 25-22 win in the third set. The Patriots had to fight to the very end to win the second set of the match 27-25.

The Landsharks (23-7) continued to press their attack in sets four and five, but Powdersville’s five seniors—Gracie McCall, Caroline Sweet, Sarah Van Daele, Katie Brannam and Alyssa Whiteside—were instrumental in playing steady.

“I rely on the seniors and their leadership and just hoping that they can lead our team and pump them back up,” Passini said, especially after the loss of the third set. “I tell them all the time, I joke and say y’all do that to me all the time just to give me a heart attack. I think I’m going to have to retire because I don’t think I can handle those anymore, but I’m super proud of them.”

While senior leadership helped the team keep calm, and while several Landsharks hitters overshot their kill attempts, junior Peyton Carman came up with key stops toward the end.

At the end of the fifth set, Carman’s kill as Alyssa Joy served gave Powdersville the championship.

“We have a lot of faith in each other and God provides all the energy and effort and love for this sport and we put it into that last point,” Carman said. “Yes, we struggled throughout the game but we made it all work in the end.”

Landsharks head coach Jennifer Fort credited Powdersville for its steady play.

“They’re a great team. They’re very good at adjusting and they play great together all the time,” she said. “We had a lot of key players, young players that are freshmen and sophomores and juniors but in those big moments it was hard. We battled as hard as we could and the only difference that made the biggest impact was that we missed 22 serves, and you can’t miss 22 serves and expect to win a state championship game.”

Fort said Oceanside (24-5) loses seven seniors who will be missed, but the Landsharks, who won a 2A state title in 2022 and a 3A crown in 2021, have a solid core of returners.

“I’m so proud of them and the senior leadership, like Brianna Bowman, No.3, she just rocked it tonight. She played all out and left it all on the court. Our Libero Avery Bell made a great addition,” she said. “We’ve got some holes to fill, some big leadership shoes to fill, but we’re definitely going to be back and we know what it’s like to lose in the fifth set. We won’t let it happen again.”