Oakesdale Nighthawks volleyball top in state

DAYTON — The Oakesdale Nighthawks finished their district playoffs with a sweep against the Liberty Christian Patriots, giving them the district championship, and qualifying them for the state tournament.

The Nighthawks played their district championship match in Dayton on Saturday, Nov. 4.

Set scores in the district championship all favored the Nighthawks: 25-18, 25-18, 25-20.

The Nighthawks started the first set up 5-1, then pushed their lead to 15-10 before the Patriots took a timeout.

Oakesdale would go on a strong run to take the 22-17 lead, before ending the set 25-18.

The second set saw Oakesdale trailing 11-13 before tying the set at 15 each.

After the tie, Oakesdale went on a run to lead 19-16 before winning the set 25-18.

In the third set, the Nighthawks were down 1-5 before calling their first timeout.

After the timeout, Oakesdale found themselves in a 7-10 hole.

The Nighthawks would fight back to take the 17-13 lead.

The Patriots would call a timeout to regroup their team after trailing 19-13. Oakesdale would use the timeout to jump to a 21-19 lead, then push to the 25-20 third set victory.

Payton Davis led the way with 27 kills for the Nighthawks. Eight grade setter Megan Crider had 39 assists, and Lucy Hockett had four aces in the match.

The Nighthawks earned the number one overall seed in the 1B State Volleyball playoffs this year.

The state tournament is being played on Wednesday and Thursday, Nov. 8-9, and is being held in Yakima.

The first game for the Nighthawks was played on Wednesday, Nov. 8.

The Nighthawk volleyball team had a short assembly on Tuesday, Nov. 7, as the school celebrated the team with gift baskets. The team then got on the bus and headed down to Yakima to get a practice in before the tournament.

The Nighthawks are the favorite to win the state tournament.