Lincoln Christian volleyball regains championship form with 4-set win for Class 4A title
By Christian Potts
SAPULPA - One year without a state volleyball championship was enough for Lincoln Christian.
The Lady Bulldogs finished off their run through the Class 4A state tournament Saturday, taking down Community Christian, 3-1 (25-18, 22-25, 25-22, 25-17), at the Chieftain Center. It's the fourth state volleyball title in the previous five years for Lincoln Christian.
Lincoln, which played a difficult schedule filled with many larger-school opponents, as well as almost all the state tournament qualifiers from 3A and 4A, finished its season with a 27-13 record, but was a winner when it counted most.
"My goodness, my emotions have overwhelmed me," said Lincoln coach Deidra Rader. "It has been a season of adversity, and the resilience of these girls, that they have shown to execute with flawless precision, has been breathtaking."
Lincoln Christian captured the 3A state title in 2018 and the 4A championship in 2019 and 2020 before falling in the semifinals last year.
They had to fight for every point against a CCS squad that has great recent history of its own, winning the Class 3A state title in both 2020 and 2021 before moving up to 4A this year. CCS also had a 3-1 victory against Lincoln earlier this season in the Rejoice Christian Tournament.
The Royals got out to early leads in each of the four sets, but Lincoln was able to keep fighting back when it needed to.
"That was an amazing opponent, an amazingly talented team," Rader said of the Royals. "We've just got very mentally tough kids. One mistake does not shake them or rock them.
"They just think, 'Hey, I'm not going to make that mistake again, let's go back out and go.'"
Junior outside hitter Paiton Tuggle came through with three kills in the final four points as Lincoln rebounded from a slow start and pulled away to take the first set, 25-18.
But the Royals came back strong in set two, setting the tone by blocking Tuggle on the first point, and later rallying from a 20-17 deficit to score eight of the final 10 points of the set. The last point came on a strong kill by their own powerful outside hitter, junior Landry Braziel.
Set three was competitive and back-and-forth after a strong start by the Royals. It was Tuggle again coming through late in the set with back-to-back kills to make it 23-20, and the Bulldogs hung on to take the 2-1 match advantage.
With their backs to the wall, the Royals kept battling in the fourth set, trying to feature Braziel, who had multiple kills, including three in a stretch of four points to pull CCS within a point, 14-13.
But a few points later, Lincoln's Micalah Reed blocked Braziel to make it 17-14. The Bulldogs chipped away toward the victory until two late aces by sophomore Frannie Rollandini sealed the deal.
It's a sweet result for the six seniors on the Lincoln squad.
"They've been my best friends," said senior team captain Jessica Kaste. "I played with most of them since I was 9 or 10, so to finish off like that, it's just been so fun.
"We all really wanted to win it all, and we knew that was going to be the goal this year no matter what. So we fought together and stuck together."
In the end, it all paid off to add some more hardware to their school's trophy case.
"They have done everything we've asked of them," Rader said of her team. "So to get the reward of trusting me as a coach and them trusting each other as athletes, that's the epitome of high school sports."
This year's tournament saw the end of a spectacular run by Tulsa Victory Christian, which had won state championships in each of the previous five seasons - in 2017, 2019 and 2020 in Class 5A, and 2018 and 2021 in Class 4A.
The Lady Conquerors bowed out to Lincoln Christian in the state quarterfinal round, finishing with a 24-11 record that included a nine-match winning streak leading up to the state tournament. It also started the gauntlet run that the eventual state champions had to make.
In Friday's semifinals, Lincoln had to avenge an early-season loss to defending state runner-up Regent Prep, the tournament's No. 2 seed, winning in straight sets, before the championship win against top-seeded CCS, which finished its season at 35-5.
Both finalists already can be put on the short list of serious contenders for next season, with young players all over the floor. CCS had multiple freshmen and sophomores who saw significant court time Saturday and during the season.
