The Park Hill boys volleyball team could not have picked a better time to win consecutive best-of-five matches than last week, when they stunned Park Hill South and Oak Park to clinch the District 15 championship.
In the first year of the program, Park Hill went 6-14-1 during the regular season to get the No. 3 seed in districts. To claim the title, the Trojans needed to win two standard best-of-five sets matches — something they hadn’t accomplished all year.
Their postseason run began May 13 against No. 2 seed Park Hill South, which had swept the Trojans in conference play. Despite the previous losses, Park Hill carried some confidence into the district semifinal after playing the Panthers close in the regular season.
“Although we had not beaten them in the regular season, we had played them close,” Park Hill head coach Lindsey Hood said. “We were hopeful that if they took the first set from them, we would have the confidence that we could win the match.”
That’s exactly what happened. Park Hill won the opening set 25-22, but South responded by taking the next two sets, 25-11 and 25-23. Facing elimination, the Trojans rallied to win the fourth set 25-21, then clinched a spot in the final with a 15-10 win in the fifth.
While the emotional victory over a district rival was rewarding, Park Hill had little time to celebrate. The following night, the Trojans faced top-seeded Oak Park — winners of 23 straight matches — for the district championship.
Oak Park had dominated the regular-season series, winning all eight sets across three matches and outscoring Park Hill 200-146. But the Trojans flipped the script when it mattered most to conquer the seemingly unbeatable, handing the Northmen their first best-of-five sets defeat of the season.
Oak Park quickly raced out to a 2-0 advantage by taking the first two sets 25-15 and 25-16, putting Park Hill on the brink of elimination again. Undeterred, the Trojans battled back to take the third and fourth sets by identical 25-21 scores, forcing a decisive fifth.
Park Hill raced out to an early lead and held on, capping the comeback with a block from Cam Jones for a 15-11 win and the district title.
“We could see the stuff we worked on this season and the muscle memory stuff started to click,” Hood said. “We have learned to serve more aggressive and our blocking really was a game-changer for us during the match.”
Park Hill has now won three straight and advances to play District 16 champion Staley in a sectional match on May 20. There is no predicting how far the Trojans will get with their newfound confidence and momentum.
“We are finally figuring out how to play volleyball,” Hood said. “We had very little playing experience on the court prior to the season, so we were always hopeful that the game, and how to actually play it, would click for the boys, and luckily for us, that has happened in the postseason.”