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CHARLESTON -- The Oak Glen volleyball team had another memorable season.
The Golden Bears found their groove late in the season and went on a run, capturing the Class AA Region 1, Section 1 and Region 1 titles and earned a third-consecutive trip to Charleston.
The run, however, came to an end a day earlier than Oak Glen had hoped, as the Golden Bears fell in the state semifinals to top-seeded Shady Spring Friday night in three sets.
"It is exciting for this group to reach the semifinals," Oak Glen head coach Morgan Poling said. "It wasn't our storybook ending, but we learned a lot this season. We got better every day and just to be (in Charleston) is a huge accomplishment for our team."
The Golden Bears, who entered the state tournament as the No. 5 seed, started the day off strong with an upset of No. 4 Winfield, sweeping to a 25-18, 25-17, 25-15 victory to earn a spot in the final four.
The win was Oak Glen's 11th-straight victory and gave them 15-consecutive set wins in tournament action.
"We came in this morning ready to play," Poling said. "We came into the match with a lot of momentum and were able to come away with the win."
Ashlyn Six collected 14 kills and five aces, while McKenzi Martin had five kills and three aces, Teya Hall 10 digs and Gracie Wright 21 assists.
Shady Spring, who won its 45th match of the season when it topped the Bears in the semifinals to advance to Saturday's state championship match, got off to a quick start, taking the first two sets 25-14 and 25-11.
Oak Glen was much closer in the third, but the top-ranked team in the state prevailed for the sweep to advance, 25-21.
"Shady Spring is a good team," Poling said. "The first two sets, we just could not get momentum on our side, we made a lot of unforced errors.
"In that third set we made some changes that seemed to be working, we just couldn't finish."
In the match, Six had 15 kills and two aces, Martin six kills, Hall and Sydney Smith each had nine digs and Wright finished with 21 assists.
Oak Glen, which finished the season 24-9, loses four seniors in McKayla Zoellers, Wright, Hall and Emma Renfro.
"I'm going to miss those girls," Poling said. "They have led this program all four years. I have been with them three years now and they gave it everything they had."