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Big Reds sweep at volleyball tri

Parkersburg’s Shay-Lee Kirby prepares to hit a Wheeling Park shot back to the Patriots Thursday during the Big Reds’ 23-25, 25-12, 25-15 win. Kirby recorded 19 kills on the evening as the Big Reds swept matches against Wheeling Park and Buckhannon-Upshur at PHS Memorial Fieldhouse. Photo by Joe Albright.

PARKERSBURG — After losing its first set on Senior Night, host Parkersburg High won four straight sets to sweep a volleyball tri over Wheeling Park and Buckhannon-Upshur Thursday at Memorial Fieldhouse.

The Big Red girls are now 44-12-4 after besting Wheeling Park 23-25, 25-12, 25-15 and then Buckhannon-Upshur 25-16, 26-24 with just nine days left in the regular season. Next up for PHS is the Huntington Invitational on Saturday.

In the first set versus Park, the Big Reds led 4-0 and 8-4. But the Patriots battled back to go ahead 10-9 and from then on, it was a a close back-and-forth match. Park forged a 23-19 advantage only to see PHS rally back to force a 23-all tie on Amayah Lauer’s spike before the Patriots went on to win, 25-23.

The next two sets, though, belonged to the Big Reds, taking set 2 behind the strong play of Shay-Lee Kirby and Emily Casto. PHS roared out to a 17-3 lead and never looked back.

Set 3 was close too — for a while — as from a 6-6 tie, PHS went on an 11-0 tear to take control with a 17-6 lead and Park got no closer than 10 again the rest of the way.

Against Buck-Up in the first set, the Big Reds just gradually pulled away from a 5-3 lead and were not really challenged.

But in set 2, it was 10-10 before five more ties, the last at 20-20. PHS built a 23-20 gap on a Casto spike followed by two aces from Ciara Miller, but not for long as Buckhannon caught up at 24-all, setting the stage for a pair of Casto heroics back-to-back with a spike and an ace to wrap up the victory.

Topping the PHS stats on the night were Miller with 19 points and 35 assists, Kirby with 19 kills, Casto with 14 points and nine kills, and Sam Bunner with 15 points and three aces.

“We looked prettty good and I wanted my seniors to have as much floor time as possible,” said first-year PHS head coach Erin Thorpe.

“We have played a lot of games in less than two months and still have some to go before sectionals here in town and regionals at Cabell Midland.

“We may not have a group of the best players in the state, but I know our girls are some of the hardest workers in the state and they give me their all.”

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