By MICKEL PONTHIEUX / Sports Reporter

PELHAM – The Oak Mountain Eagles volleyball team jumped out to a big first set win, but had to hold off the Pelham Panthers in the final to games to pick up the 25-11, 25-21, 25-15 win on Sept 4.

The Eagles (9-0) took a 20-9 lead to start off the first set of the match then closed with a 7-2 rally to take the 25-11 first set win.

Pelham (0-8, 0-2) refused to fade away and kept pace with the Eagles throughout the second set. The Panthers never trailed more than four points in the match and didn’t allow Oak Mountain to break for a long rally. The Eagles led 20-19 late in the second set and took the set win with a 5-2 rally for the 25-11, 25-21 lead heading into the third frame of the match.

“Oak Mountain is a very talented team,” said Pelham head coach Perry Robinson. “We are just trying to catch up to them. We want to play at that level.”

The Panthers continued the momentum they gathered in the second set and battled for a 9-9 score in the third.

“We were able to settle down and we were able to run some more offense to try to get them into some scramble stuff,” Robinson said on his team’s improvement during the match. “We were working on some stuff we thought they would keep doing and put our strengths in front of their strengths.”

Oak Mountain regained the control of the match like they had in the first and went on a 16-6 rally to take the match win, 25-15.

The Eagles’ Emily Cosgrove led all scorers with 14 kills along with three blocks. Hannah Kowel added eight kills for Oak Mountain while accounting for four digs. Hannah Beach led the Eagles with 21 assists.

Caitland Smith led Pelham with seven kills with Bradleigh Smith adding four kills for the Panthers. Lauren Meadows had a team-high nine digs on defense for Pelham.