The Red Oak Hawks, the surprise team of 2002, completed a dream season with a convincing 15-12, 15-7 victory over New Branufels in the finals of the 4A state championship.

The Hawks (45-2), who burst onto the scene with a third place finish at the Duncanville Tournament of Champions, used the towering trio of Laurie Burrow, Kelly Fletcher and tournament MVP Tori Dacus to overpower the Unicorns. Dacus had 9 kills and 13 digs. Burrow led the Hawks with 16 kills (35 attempts), most coming on a slide that New Braunfels was unable to handle, and Fletcher had 13 kills on 24 swings. Amber Lohrman distributed the ball almost evenly among her three power hitters and finished with 30 assists.

Jenna Hartman and Erica Wendell led New Braunfels with 9 kills each, Gin Mozeley added 8 and Jackie Lucas had 6. Amanda Jergins finished with 32 assists.

New Braunfels jumped out quick and led 6-1 in game 1 before a flurry of blocks and kills by Burrow pulled the Hawks to within 6-5. The teams traded points until, at 12-12, two errors spaced around an ace gave Red Oak the win. New Braunfels seemed to have trouble recovering from the game one loss and when Red Oak jumped out to a quick 4-0 lead on three aces and a serve receive error, the Unicorns had dug a hole they couldn't climb out of. Red Oak expanded the lead to 10-0 before New Braunfels scored. The Unicorns made a couple of brief rallies, but could get no closer than 13-7.

"Our goal when we started the season was to win this game," said Red Oak coach Arthur Stanfield. "I though maybe we had a little more patience and kept our composure even though we got down early. Our goal going in was not to get aced. I thought that if we could keep the rallies going we would be OK. We didn't practice well this week so I put it on their shoulders. I told them we could go down there and enjoy the experience and that's OK, because we would have had a good season. Or we can go down there and win some games. I thought it took a while for them (New Braunfels) to regain their composure after game one and when Amber (Lohrman) started game 2 with those aces I think that hurt them. It's always easier to play ahead 4-0 or 5-0 than when it's close or you are behind."

Stanfield said he realized he had the making of a state champion after the Duncanville tournament. "I knew then that we'd be OK," he said. "We beat some good teams. Then we went to the Northwest Tournament of champions and beat Pine Tree and Hereford. All year long I wanted to be playing this match. Playing in this match was my goal. Winning was just a bonus."

"After you do it a couple of times and know it works then you want to keep coming back to it," said Burrow of the slides. "We weren't worried after we got down. We told ourselves, we deserve this and we want it more."

"We just had a hard time getting our offense going," said New Braunfels coach Phyllis Fowler. "We came back yesterday so I knew we could do it. We just couldn't defend that slide.They pass-serve very well and trying to defend that right side was tough. That's the hardest thing to defend and they do it very well."

Fowler said she was proud of the way her team fought back despite falling so far behind in game 2. "Once again they showed a lot of character," she said. "They dug a very deep hole but I've seen a lot of things happen in volleyball so I know you can come back and they have played enough to know it too."

"Once we saw we were down, we kind of broke down ," said Hartmann. "And we couldn't seem to get it going again. It's hard to take (losing), but just being here is great."

Statistical leaders

Red Oak
Kills - Burrow 16, Fletcher 13, Dacus 9, Lohram 2
Assists - Lohram 30
Blocks - Burrow 1S, 2A; Dacus 2A; Pena and Fletcher 1A
Aces - Lohrman 3, Thomas, Griswold and Pena 1
Digs - Dacus 13, Pena and Lohrman 6

Friendswood
Kills - Hartmann and Wendell 9, Mozeley 8, Lucas 6, Corneliu 4
Assists - Jergins 32
Aces - Jergins 6
Digs - Fowler 12, Jergins 11
Blocks - Lucas 1S, 1A; Cornelius, Wendell and Hartmann 1A