VOLLEYBALL: BIXBY DOWNS BARTLESVILLE; DEWEY RANKED NO. 8; WCS DEFEATS OKU
Bartlesville High School’s Ava Smith passes the ball during action against Bixby Tuesday in Bartlesville.
BECKY BURCH/Bartlesville Area Sports
By Mike Tupa
Sept.11, 2025
BARTLESVILLE AREA SPORTS REPORT
Following is a roundup of recent area prep volleyball action.
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BARTLESVILLE
BIXBY def. BARTLESVILLE, 3-1 (25-21, 25-16, 22-25, 25-17): No. 4-ranked Bixby found No. 11 Bartlesville to be a tough out.
But, Bixby managed to squeeze out the victory. Bartlesville’s record went to 15-8, and also saw its chances of hosting a regional game take a blow.
Bartlesville started out strong against Bixby.
“We played really real and got up,” said second-year Lady Bruin head coach Andrew Blain.
Bartlesville led when the match went into the 20’s, “but Bixby went on a run,” to win the set.
After a tough second set, the Lady Bruins dug in and fought back hard in the third set.
“We showed a ton of grit,” Blain said, noting with a note of amazement his hitters delivered 16 kills — and made only three hitting errors — in the set.
Five different girls delivered two-or-more kills in the set — Mia Johnson, Terrin Barclay, Avery Matney, Cera Federico and Aisley Keirsey.
Matney finished with eight kills — and just one error — for the match.
In the fourth set “we didn’t quite hit as well,” Blain said. “We just play as clean. … It kind of slowly slipped out of our hands.”
In order to host a regional the Lady Bruins will need to move into the top eight.
That’s why their next two games against ranked Class 6A opponents — Broken Arrow (No. 2) and Owasso (No. 12) are so important. They will have to travel to Broken Arrow and Owasso.
Bartlesville High School’s Mia Johnson passes the ball against Bixby on Tuesday in Bartlesville.
BECKY BURCH/Bartlesville Area Sports
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BARTLESVILLE TOURNEY: The Lady Bruins muscled to a 4-2 record — the high point being a sweep of Yukon, the only regret a loss to Sand Springs.
Bartlesville emerged from the weekend with its season record sitting at 15-7 and 5-2 at home.
“I’m thrilled with where we’re at,” said Blain.
On the highlight side, Lady Bruin libero Sophie Frey recorded her 1,000th. career dig.
Some people might be surprised at Bartlesville’s success — because of some heavy graduation losses off last year’s so far, but not Blain.
“We’ve got a good group,” he said. “They’ve been together a long time and have a winning tradition. I would say we’re about where I expected us to be.”
Inspired by the pugnacious pounding of hitters Mia Johnson (49 kills) and Ellie Benson (39 kills) the Lady Bruins overwhelmed most of their opposition last weekend.
Benson recorded a .240 hitting percentage “which is really high for her,” Blain said.
In addition, lead setter Emma Parsley and Frye “are kind of our leaders, our heart and soul,” said Blain. “They were just solid all weekend.”
Federico missed two matches but still produced 11 blocks in the other four.
The Lady Bruins opened up the tourney by dropping the Jenks junior varsity, 25-20, 25-13, in a worthy warm-up.
Next up, powerhouse Victory Christian (ranked No. 4 in the state in Class 4A) surged past Bartlesville, 25-11, 25-16.
Bartlesville snapped back to knock off No. 14-ranked (Class 6A) Yukon, 25-19, 25-17.
“I think the Yukon win was probably our biggest of the tournament,” Blain said. “Even though they’re ranked below us, that was a good test to see where we’re at.”
In Saturday’s opener, the Lady Bruins brought down Southmoore, 25-17, 25-13.
Sand Springs then edged Bartlesville, in a massive third-set marathon. The scores were 17-25, 28-26, 20-18.
“We had circled this game for our tournament,” Blain said. “But we lost. We won the first set pretty handedly but we relaxed a little bit and then found ourselves in a dogfight.”
Bartlesville finished up by pouncing past Ponca City, 25-23, 25-9. The Lady Bruins are 3-0 this season against Ponca City.
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Dewey High School’s Isabela Villanueva serves during an earlier season game.
BECKY BURCH/Bartlesville Area Sports
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DEWEY
Talk about your clutch wins!
Berryhill won the first two sets and appeared ready to bury the Lady Doggers.
But Dewey recovered, flexed its muscles and rolled to victory in the final three sets to win the match.
Ranked No. 8 in the state in Class 4A, Dewey improved to 14-2
Next up, Dewey faces a grinder of a test this weekend at the Wesleyan Christian School tourney. In addition to Dewey and Wesleyan Christian the field features Metro Christian, Corn Bible, Chisholm and Wright Christian.
Dewey head coach Hayley Harris will be hoping to get the same kind of spirited splurge of effort her Lady Doggers displayed against Berryhill.
She credited Lacey Nichols with stepping up and helping to push it through by helping light a fire under the team.
Marcella Willard and Nichols both did some heavy hammering on the left side while Callie Posch and C.J. Jones “put up some really good blocks in the middle,” Harris said.
On the right front, Nevaeh Straley “played a really, really good game.”
Setters Rylan White and Kaylee Cole also both unleashed big efforts with both their serving and feeding the hitters, she added.
“It was a really good win,” said Harris. “I made my blood pressure rise.”
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Wesleyan Christian takes on Oklahoma Union in Bartlesville last week.
BECKY BURCH/Bartlesville Area Sports
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WESLEYAN CHRISTIAN SCHOOL
Bolstered by the play of Ava Gatrell, Kori White and Miranda Hadrava the Lady Mustangs survived a massive home scare.
Oklahoma Union led after three sets, 2-1, and threatened to hand WCS its first home loss of the season.
But the Lady Mustangs regrouped to win the final two sets and improve to 8-6 on the season.
WCS head coach Mariah Cooks credited her team’s passers with making the positive difference.
“I think we struggled harder to make good decisions at the net,” she added.
Gatrell is a senior that is playing more comfortably this season “and does a really good job of reading quickly,” Cooks said.
She praised White for her effort and her attacking ways from the back row.
Hadrava excelled at going above the net and finding the defensive holes, Cooks said. She was especially effective in the final set in securing the home win.
Next up, WCS plays host this weekend to a tournament. Among the opposition will be Dewey, Metro Christian, Corn Bible, Chisholm and Wright Christian.