VERDIGRIS -- When Bailey Newhart's ace tied the fourth set at 18, it appeared an upset of Class 3A No. 7 Rejoice Christian was within reach.
The Lady Cardinals had clawed back from an early deficit and were just a handful of rallies away from forcing a decisive fifth set. However, in a match defined by momentum swings, the Lady Eagles' firepower once again surfaced at the right time, sealing a 3-1 victory -- 25-17, 19-25, 25-17, 25-23 -- Monday night at the Verdigris Activity Center.
"I watched them online, and they looked like they were beatable," Verdigris coach Caleb Horton said. "I thought we had a chance. We made some really dumb plays in the first set. I'm proud of my girls. They've gone through a lot of adversities, a lot of changes, lineup changes and I thought they played really well. We were a couple of points from pulling off Set 4."
Rejoice [22-8] was led by Lailee Moore, who delivered 19 total points on 16 kills and 3 aces, including several momentum-stopping strikes in critical moments. Chaleigh Webb added 10 kills and contributed at the net with 2 block assists and a solo block.
Supporting efforts came from Mikayla Christian [5 kills, 2 aces, 1 block] and the combination of No. 7 and No. 8, who weren't listed on the roster but chipped in multiblock nights and timely kills for 13 points combined.
Verdigris [14-18] countered with a balanced attack of its own.
Jylian Pagan tallied 14 points on 12 kills and 2 blocks, repeatedly turning broken plays into scoring chances. Paisley Sparks hammered 11 kills and added an ace, while Adilynn McMahan was instrumental on the outside with 8 kills.
Julia Timms chipped in 7 kills, and Newhart and Mia Guerrero energized the crowd from the service line with a combined 6 aces.
"Our goal was to try to drive everything down the line because I noticed on film they just don't defend the corners real well," Horton said. So our goal was we've just got to hit the line, hit the line, both sides, hit the line and we kept going middle back."
The opening set belonged to the Lady Eagles after a rocky start.
The Lady Cardinals grabbed a quick 2-0 edge thanks to a hitting error and an ace from Andie Boyd, and for a moment it looked like they might control tempo.
But Moore, Rejoice's go-to weapon all night, immediately shifted momentum with a kill to steady her side. A Sarah Heiskell block and back-to-back kills from Webb and Moore fueled a 6-2 push that gave the Lady Eagles a lead it would never surrender.
Although Sparks and Timms managed kills to keep the deficit manageable at 12-11, Verdigris unraveled during the middle stretch.
A cascade of errors -- 4 miscues in a 6-point span -- paired with Moore's serving and a string of blocks from Webb and No. 7 turned a tight contest into a 21-13 runaway.
Pagan tried to rally her team with a late kill and block, but Rejoice pounced on more Lady Cardinal mistakes to close the set 25-17.
Verdigris responded with its best volleyball of the night in the second.
McMahan and Pagan immediately got rolling at the net, while a string of errors gave the Lady Cardinals control at 12-6.
The Lady Eagles tried to counter with a kill from Moore and an ace from Barney, but Verdigris shrugged it off and built its lead back to 16-11 when Sparks delivered consecutive kills on the right side. That momentum carried into the back half of the set, highlighted by an emphatic McMahan kill that pushed the lead to 22-16.
"Being a lefty, she's had a good swing, and she's gotten a lot more confidence in her strike," Horton said of Sparks. "Last year, she would swing a little bit, but she really didn't swing that hard. This year, she gets up and she really attacks the ball. Our back-row defense is not the most stellar, and that's OK. She's generating points in the front row. It's what we really need from her. She's coming along."
After McMahan buried her fifth kill of the frame, Newhart dropped in an ace for set point. Pagan sealed it moments later, slamming a kill down the middle for a 25-19 equalizer.
The third set opened in disaster for the Lady Cardinals, though.
A flurry of miscues, paired with kills from Webb and Moore, left Verdigris staring at a 6-1 deficit. After a timeout, the Lady Cardinals steadied themselves -- Pagan roofed a block, Sparks found the floor and Timms chipped in with a kill to make it 12-9. However, every rally seemed to end with Rejoice finding the right response.
Christian stuffed a block at the net, Webb and Moore strung together consecutive kills and No. 7 tallied a block that extended the lead to 22-12. Pagan tried to spark life with a kill, and Sparks added two more, but the Lady Eagles' balance proved too much.
A kill from Christian closed the frame at 25-17, reclaiming control for the visitors.
That set up a dramatic fourth act.
Early on, Verdigris looked overwhelmed by its own mistakes, committing 4 hitting errors that fueled a 7-3 Rejoice lead. When Moore crushed a kill and followed with an ace to stretch it to 13-7, the Lady Cardinals seemed out of answers.
Then came the spark: Guerrero stepped behind the line and delivered back-to-back aces, trimming the deficit to 7-6. Pagan and McMahan added kills in the next few points alongside a handful of Lady Eagle errors, and when Newhart rifled a pair aces to knot it at 18-all, the crowd erupted.
For a few rallies, Verdigris had Rejoice on the ropes. However, the Lady Eagles didn't panic.
Moore ripped a kill through the block, No. 8 notched a kill of her own and Webb answered Newhart's kill with one of her own to set up match point.
The Lady Cardinals staved off one chance thanks to an error, but a hitting miscue doomed them, handing Rejoice a 25-23 set win and the match.
"Everybody's peaking at about the right time," Horton said. "I was worried a couple weeks ago that we were not peaking at the right time. This puts us at 14-18, and if we didn't have that eight-game slide in the middle of the season, we'd be looking at a winning record. We can still possibly pull off a winning record, but we're gonna have to play lights out."