Red Oak's front line of Kelly Fletcher, Laurie Burrow and Tori Dacus put on an explosive display of hitting and blocking to shock Friendswood with surprising ease and advance to Saturday's 4A state championship.

Running the slide as if she invented it, setter Amber Lohrman fed Burrow (13 kills) and Fletcher (10 kills) who were able to stay from the Mustangs 6'1" junior middle Kelly Stanton and finish off an assortment of cross-court and down-the-line kills. Senior Allie Spangle finished an outstanding career with 9 kills and 10 assists for Friendswood. Stanton, Lisa Parmer and Lauren Munselle added 5 kills each.

Red Oak jumped to a 6-0 lead in game one, but Friendswood fought back to go in front 7-6 forcing Red Oak coach Arthur Stanfield to call time out.

"We were standing around watching the ball hit and after the time out we started going after balls and getting back into the flow of the game," said Stanfield. "We stepped it up and hustled and didn't let another ball hit the ground."

Fletcher took over with an assortment of kills and blocks as Red Oak began pulling away and never trailed again in the match. Game 2 was never closer than 6-4.

"Fletcher is an awfully good volleyball player. She's explosive and she didn't make mistakes today," said Stanfield. "She's our best defensive player. She's not going to let the ball hit the ground."

"I thought we served the ball well and sided out well," added Stanfield, who said that the facing Longview Pine Tree in the playoffs the past three years helped his team get to this point. "Two years ago we played them with a little stick and they had a big stick. Last year we thought we had a good chance and played well for a game and a half but then our inexperience got to us. This year athletically we were the better team. They had the best player but we had the better players."

"I thought we were fine at the beginning, even after those first six points. We came back and I thought we had it. Then we started to panic," said Friendswood coach Tammy Pipkin."We didn't get to run what we wanted to run. We panicked."

"We weren't playing our game," said Stanton. "We should have swung away more."

Statistical leaders

Red Oak
Kills - Laurie Burrow 13, Kelly Fletcher 10, Tori Dacus 6, Chelsea Pena 1.
Assists - Amber Lohrman 26, Joanna Griswold 1
Blocks - Kelly Fletcher 1S, 1A; Laurie Burrow, Amber Lohram and Amy Hafner 1A
Aces - Chelsea Pena, Amber Lohram, Joanna Griswold and Aleisha Thomas 1
Digs - Chelsea Pena 8, Joanna Griswold 7, Amber Lohram 5, Amy Hafner and Aleisha Thomas 4

Friendswood
Kills - Allie Spangle 9, Kelly Stanton, Lauren Munselle and Lisa Parmer 5, Molli Abel 3, Krystal Bean 1
Assists - Jamie Gill 14, Allie Spangle 10, Lisa Parmer and Molli Abel 2
Aces - Allie Spangle 1
Digs - Allie Spangle and Jamie Gill 7, Kelly Stanton, Molli Abel and Jamie Jensen 6, Lisa Parmer 5, Brittany Todd 4, Krystal Bean 2