MORGANTOWN — The top-ranked Morgantown High volleyball team avenged an earlier loss to its rival and advanced to the OVAC championship game at the same time Wednesday night.
It was anything but easy, as fourth-ranked University High won a thrilling first set, only to see the Mohigans bounce back and win three straight in a 3-1 victory at The Rowdie Center.
The scores were 23-25, 25-21, 25-15, and 25-12, which came after the Mohigans suffered a 3-1 loss against the Hawks a week earlier.
MHS (29-5) travels to St. Clairsville (Ohio) on Saturday to face Marietta for the OVAC title. Marietta defeated Warren 3-0 on Tuesday.
The Hawks (24-5-1) will face Warren in the consolation match.
The match began like a pair of prizefighters trading punch after punch. The first set featured what both coaches agreed was truly top-notch, nearly mistake-free volleyball.
Morgantown forged a four-point advantage midway through the set at 14-10, only to have University win five straight points to take the lead back.
MHS eventually got it to 23-22, but the Hawks rose up to sweep the last three points and the set.
UHS continued to serve and defend well to begin the second set, building a solid 16-11 lead – and that’s when the Mohigans took their game to a higher level, especially on the defensive end.
They ripped off an 8-1 run to take a 19-17 lead, then closed out the set with four straight points to even the match.
It seemed that, while Morgantown was able to find their game mid-set, the Hawks were unable to match in intensity in the remainder of the match.
The Mohigans sprinted away on a 10-1 run to win the third set, then dominated the final set.
Audrey Buck paced MHS with 36 assists, three blocks, five digs and three service aces, while Giatta Iquinto totaled 13 digs and nine kills.
After the match, Hawks coach Nick Lusk was a bit puzzled by the drop off in performance and intensity from his team beginning in the second set.
“We simply did not bring our best game tonight,” he admitted. “When we beat MHS a week ago, our energy stayed high the whole match. We played really, really well the first set, but we kind of got flat in the second set and never really got back into the match. Now, you have to give Morgantown credit, because they are very good at taking you out of your game, and I thought we got a little tentative with our swings after some blocks, and our defense and intensity just wasn’t there. We knew we had to find a way through the down moments, and we couldn’t make that happen.
“But we still have plenty of season left,” he smiled, “and we’ll learn from this and get better.”
Morgantown coach Abigail Wolfe realized that this match was going to be a big one for her team.
“We are still trying to find ourselves a little bit, figuring out our identity,” she explained. “We haven’t had any five set matches this year, so we haven’t been in many gritty matches. University is really good, and they just beat us, so it was a measuring stick for us. And I really like the way we stayed together after dropping the first set and picked our game up after that challenge.
“I told them before the match,” she continued, “that whoever wins a few big points, whoever steals the momentum – and aces and blocks will do that every time – will win this match. And we did that nicely tonight.”
