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University volleyball team wins long battle against Wheeling Park 3-2

MORGANTOWN — The University High volleyball team hosted traditional rival Wheeling Park on Thursday on Senior Night, and even though the season is barely a week old, both teams were in mid–late season form. It took two full hours and five full sets to decide the winner, and in the end, it was the home-standing Hawks who took control in the final set to prevail, 23-25, 25-20, 23-25, 25-20, 15-6. 

In Set 1, Wheeling Park (2-2) took control early with a 6-point streak at 10-4, then held off UHS, which had no less than 10 chances to cut the WP lead under four, until the score reached 23-19. Then, the Hawks (3-0) rolled off four straight — including back-to-back stuff blocks from senior Sierra Lanham — to tie it at 23-all. But the Patriots stuffed a block of their own, and then produced a kill off the UHS block to prevail. 

Buoyed by their solid work and near comeback in the first set, the Hawks flipped the script in the second set, stringing together seven straight points on senior Norah Chase’s effective serve to turn an early 3-0 deficit into a 7-3 lead, then stretched out to a 9-point bulge at 17-8. Park snuck to with three at 21-18, but never really threatened, as UHS cruised to a 25-20 win. 

 With the match whittled down to a best of three, the third set turned out to be tighter than a pair of 32-inch jeans on a 38-inch waist. Once UHS jumped out to a 6-3 advantage, the two teams were never more than two points apart for the remainder of the hotly-contested set, and the set and match was tied a remarkable 13 times. Once again, the score reached 23 apiece — and once again, the Patriots found a way to squeak out the win with a joust put away and a service ace. 

However, rather than drop their collective heads at the potentially pivotal Set 3 late loss, the Hawks seemed to grit their teeth and go into full fight mode, according to coach Don Godfrey. 

“They never got down, and you could tell they had more battle in them,” he said after the match. “They weren’t going to go down quietly, and that was good to see.” 

In fact, UHS somehow managed to win Set 4 despite a whopping six service errors, every one spoiling a chance to go ahead or extend a lead to two. Finally, at 15-15, the Hawks broke free on a 7-2 run and rode another pair of consecutive Lanham stuff blocks to take the set by five and set up the deciding Set 5 showdown. 

This time, the Hawks kept the momentum on their side of the net, bursting out from a 3-4 deficit with 8-straight points, many on scramble points and perfect offensive and defensive execution. In a short-point set, a lead of seven is nearly impossible to overcome, and the Patriots had no miracles, as the Hawks powered to the win, 15-6. 

 Lanham’s monster night included a game-high 20 kills, followed by sophomore Ella Simpson’s lucky 13 kills and senior Madison Mulhall’s 13. Senior setter Payton Foulks dished out 23 assists in the comeback victory.    

“That was a real barn burner,” Godfrey said. “The level of play and the level of fight was very high between two good teams. We’ve started slow every match so far this year, but even though we couldn’t quite catch them in the first set, I thought the way we played in catching up kind of set us up for the rest of the match. That third set was tough to lose, but we somehow took care of business in Set 4 despite all those service errors. You just can’t give good teams free points. 

“In the final set, we just kept the mindset that they were gonna have to earn everything. We kept the pressure on, hit the ball in, and got everything up that we could. It was a real nice team win for us, and hopefully will set us up for the big one next week.” 

In the JV match, UHS won its opener, sweeping WP 25-14, 25-19. 

That “big one,” of course, is Tuesday’s 6:30 p.m. home match against Morgantown. 

Preston 2, Clay-Battelle 1

Clay-Battelle 2, Valley-Wetzel 0

The Cee-Bees took on the Knights at home, but came up short in their first match of a tri meet. No stats were available, but the sets were PHS were 24-26, 25-16, 26-26.

C-B bounced back in its second game, though, knocking off Valley-Wetzel 2-0 (25-10, 25-16). Kendal Saul had 10 aces; Mackenzie Wilson had three aces; Kendal Saul had three kills; Caitlynn Patterson had two kills; and Lydia Moore had four blocks.

The Cee-Bees (3-3) will play Monday at Cameron.

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