OKEECHOBEE — The Osceola Middle School Lady Warriors volleyball team had a convincing win over the Moore Haven Lady Terriers in their game on Sept. 27 in the OMS gymnasium.

The Lady Warriors won the game in two sets, taking the first set with a one-sided score of 25-4, and the second set by a score of 25-11. The win brings the team to 7-4 on the season.



OMS head coach Lauren Throop is happy the team is playing well after losing a number of top players to the high school volleyball team this year.

“We lost Anja Koivunea, Joy Whipple and Ashley Phares this year,” said Throop. “And they’re all on varsity now. So it’s been a rebuilding season. But they’re definitely catching on and starting to play well. Everything is starting to come together.”

Whipple, Koivunea and Phares lead the high school varsity team in kills with 85, 67 and 61 respectively.

While the team is currently in a rebuilding phase after losing those players, Throop believes the team has a good base to build from in the next few years. The Lady Warriors are fielding a young team, and are scheduled to lose only three eighth-graders after this year, with the majority of the team being sixth-graders.

During the game against Moore Haven, the Lady Warriors were able to take such a commanding lead early in the contest that Throop was able to rotate newer players into the lineup and give them some valuable experience that should benefit the team as a whole in the years to come.

The Lady Warriors’ serving seemed to overwhelm the Lady Terriers. Moore Haven struggled to respond, and if they were able to hold their own on the initial serve they couldn’t maintain their focus and keep up with the Lady Warriors on the ensuing back-and-forth.

Great serving by Osceola’s Sydney Matthews ultimately put the game away for the Lady Warriors.

“We’ve lost to Pemayetv Emahakv Charter twice and Yearling once so far,” Throop said of Osceola’s rival Okeechobee volleyball teams. “We get another shot at Yearling next week.

But we’re definitely growing as a team and we’re starting to talk better to each other, and that’s really what we needed to do.”

Osceola will play Yearling Middle School on Oct. 4 at 4:30 p.m. in the Yearling gymnasium.