Oak Ridge volleyball ‘set new precedents’ in Starla Pulley‘s first year as coach

A young Oak Ridge volleyball team took St. Vincent to the brink in the third set of the Class 1 District 4 championship game on Oct. 21.

The Indians won the third set 28-26 to win in straight sets and claim their third straight district title, but the Blue Jays made sure they earned their dynasty.

“Most of these girls have never been in a game situation like that,”Oak Ridge head coach Starla Pulley said. “They set new precedents and hopefully … we'll just come back stronger. we had some really good senior leadership this year and the girls worked out all offseason and during the season and they've grown so much.”

The centerpiece of the Blue Jays will be back for more next year. Regan Howe had 10 kills during the district title game. She ended her junior season already with 500 career kills.

“She’s a force to be reckoned with,” Pulley said. “Now she's tall, you know, and she's aggressive and she wants the ball. The girls see that and they feed off of that a lot on the front row. She definitely is someone that we go to and she definitely is a presence on the court for other teams.”

Oak Ridge�s Reagan Howe finished her junior season with 500 career kills. Tony Capobianco ~ tcapobianco@semoball.com

Howe, Alivia Schilling, who led with 12 assists, and Kinsley Bogenpohl, who led with 31 digs, were named First Team All-District and MVC All-Conference this season. Howe improved from getting 190 kills as a freshman to 370 kills this season.

“She's really improved since last year, gotten a lot stronger and quicker and just really has fallen in love with the sport,” Pulley said of Howe.

Pulley arrived to Oak Ridge this year after coaching the Dexter Bearcats for a decade. She inherited a rising star who was the best player of a basketball team that won 10 games for the first time school history.

“When I first met her this season, she's like, ‘basketball’s my sport coach.’ I'm like, Are you sure? And she just kind of fell in love with the sport,” Pulley said.

Pulley lead Dexter to four district championships before coming to Oak Ridge. The Blue Jays (16-12-1) finished with a similar record as last year (17-12-0) but played for their first ever district title, which is something that no other team in recent history could say.

“I think they were a little nervous having a new coach, especially my seniors,” Pulley said. “The first year, I think, once you gain their trust, they kind of buy into what your coaching philosophy is and what is important to you as a coach as far as like fundamentals and things like that. They bought into it from the beginning and they just went with it and I could just see steady improvement all year with that and I couldn't have asked for a better group of girls from my first year at Oak Ridge.”