Oklahoma Region’s Future Select team won the first title at the USA Volleyball High Performance Championships tonight at the Cox Business Center in Tulsa.
The Future Select division is made up girls born in 2006, 2007 or later — 11-and 12-year-olds.
The Oklahoma team defeated the Future Select team from the Lone Star Region in four sets, 25-15, 25-23, 16-25, 25-23.
The Oklahoma team went 6-1, losing to Lone Star in three on Wednesday. Earlier today Oklahoma got revenge in the rematch with a five-set victory (25-21, 23-25, 21-25, 25-21, 15-10), coming back from a 2-1 deficit, to set up tonight’s championship match.
Head coach Rachel Manriquez said, “We got to know each other very well these past few days. They have very strong outside hitters and we just knew we had to play some defense.”
The coach noted the strong play of outside hitter Kathrin Rowe and opposite Taylor Vann of Oklahoma City in the final.
“They were very aggressive and very clutch in stressful situations.”
In the final set of the title match, Lone Star fought off a couple match points before succumbing, 25-23 in the fourth set.
“It was very intense,” the coach said. “Very relieving. We all went nuts.”
The team was awarded their medals by five-time U.S. Olympian Danielle Scott-Arruda.
Shawn McCarty, commission of the Oklahoma Region, said that this was the first time the region had put together a Future Select team, primarily because the event was hosted in Tulsa.
“As a region, we’ve always been a strong supporter of the High Performance program, so obviously we’re very excited.”
The team is comprised of Jalee Alonzo (Norman), Megan Branson (Edmond), Sienna Collins (Oklahoma City), Brooke Edwards (Edmond), Madison Hathaway (Edmond), Allyson Mahaffey (Shawnee), Kathrin Rowe (Oklahoma City), and Taylor Vann (Oklahoma City).
The championships concluded tomorrow with seven championship matches.