Oran completes comeback, upends East Prairie in five sets

ORAN, Mo. — The Oran volleyball team faced another uphill battle Thursday night down two sets to none but staved off elimination winning the last three sets to defeat East Prairie at Oran High School.

As Oran coach Lindsey Bickings watched her young group of players fall behind 25-20, 25-23 to East Prairie she didn’t waiver from exhuming confidence into her players,

“I told them let’s focus on winning one point at a time,” Bickings said. “There is nobody better in our program than the six girls who were on the floor and finished off that fifth set and that if they didn’t believe in themselves then who was going to besides me.”

East Prairie's Olivia Hayes gets ready to serve in the third set Thursday against Oran at Oran High School. (Michael Jeter/Special to the Standard-Democrat)

Believe in themselves they did, and with authority, as the starters for the Oran, led by lone senior and captain Bralynn Morgan, started the acclivitous task of fending off East Prairie one set at a time, winning 26-24 in the third set to stave off elimination.

Fellow starters Mari Fuemmeler, Cora Woods, Piper Bennett, Kolie Morgan and Caroline Brashear dug even deeper in the fourth set as Oran rallied once again, scoring eight consecutive points down 23-17 to win the set 25-23 to force the fifth and deciding set.

The momentum stayed with Oran as kills by sophomore Ava Forehand and Woods gave the team an early 6-2 lead.

Oran sophomore Mari Fuemmeler prepares to serve in the fifth set Thursday against East Prairie at Oran High School. The host Eagles would complete the comeback to defeat East Prairie 3-2. (Michael Jeter/Special to the Standard-Democrat)

East Prairie had no quit in them as coach Kelle Goodding rallied her girls after a timeout and sparked a 7-3 run that strimmed the Oran lead to just three points.

The game would be decided on back-to-back serving errors by East Prairie that gave the host Eagles their first win of the season winning 15-13 in the final set.

“These girls worked extremely hard this past week,” Bickings said. “ We lost to Kennett on Monday convincingly and lost a close one to Risco on Tuesday. So, for these girls to not hang their heads and to dig deep like they did tonight just proves this program is bound for great things.”

Although mental errors hampered East Prairie down the stretch, Goodding thought her girls played well overall but just weren’t able to put away Oran.

“There are some things we have to work on,” Goodding said after the tough loss. “We lack that killer instinct like the good, experienced teams have. We’re a relatively new program as these girls fought hard to get this program back so they will beat themselves up over a loss like this way more than I ever will.”

The win gives Oran (1-2) its first win in the new season with a date at MSHSAA Class 1 defending champion, Advance (2-0), on Tuesday, September 5.

East Prairie (1-2) suffers consecutive losses after a season-opening win against North Pemiscot. Oran travels to Leopold on Tuesday to take on the Wildcats (2-0) at 7 p.m.