Photo by Jordan Holland Doddridge County’s Carter Lipscomb, right, runs in front of Belpre’s Eli Fullerton during Saturday’s Belpre Invitational at Civitan Park. Fullerton ended up winning the race while Lipscomb finished second.

PARKERSBURG — Parkersburg Catholic advanced to the semifinals of the fourth annual Carl Harnish Snowball Invitational here Saturday inside Memorial Fieldhouse, but the locals were ousted by eventual tournament champion Spring Mills, which upended Greenbrier East in the finals — 23-25, 25-23 and 15-10.

Spring Mills junior masher Leia Harper, who has committed to Virginia Tech, produced a finals match-high 21 kills for the Patriots of head coach Kendra Kesecker.

“Today really showcased who we really are,” said Kesecker, who landed Harper and fellow Patriot Gabbi Jainniney (three aces, match-high 27 assists) on the all-tournament team. “We showed up, played hard as a team and I think today has been the best showing to date.

“Leia’s a great asset to our team, but as far as winning it takes all the players. It takes every person and nobody can do it alone. There’s no ‘I’ on our team. We are a we and we are a unit.”

Greenbrier East never led in the decisive third set and fell behind 6-1 after Patriot Nylah Gonzalez served for five straight points, including two aces. With Jasalyn Junkin at the service line, Spring Mills went up 9-2 thanks to a double block by Harper and Alyssa Rider on Spartan Haley McClure, who had a team-high 11 downed spikes.

McClure, though, registered a couple of aces to close the gap to 10-6 and it was 12-9 after a Maggie Thompson service tally, but kills by Gonzalez and Harper got it to match point, which came via a GEHS service error.

“We started off really slow today and lost our first three sets, but they fought back and had a good day overall,” said Spartan head man Matt Sauvage, who landed McClure and Nevaeh Wooding on the all-tournament team.

“That was a good match. We gave them all they wanted. A couple points here or there and it turns the other way.”

PCHS fought hard, but head coach Amanda Weatherwax’s team fell 25-16 and 25-17 to Spring Mills.

“I’m very proud of the way they came together today,” Weathewax stated. “I thought we showed some more consistency than we have been lately and they played with intensity. We played some very good teams and I think we got better this weekend.”

Gracie Lowers, who had 33 digs and a quartet of aces on the day, was named to the all-tournament squad. Teammate Aaliyah Brunny had 28 total kills and 11.5 blocks. Madison Ross had 12 kills in pool play versus South Charleston and 27 overall. Lainie Ross finished with 21 downed spikes and Jenna Boice had 80 total assists and nine aces for PCHS.

The host Big Reds of head coach Erin Thorpe had their day come to an end after Greenbrier East topped the red and white 25-18 and 26-24 in the quarterfinals.

Shelby Roberts had eight kills and as many digs, Kristen Lowers finished with seven kills and 10 digs, Maggie Sauers tallied 14 assists while Khylan Plants and all-tournament member Janna Spencer served for two aces apiece.

“I think the biggest thing we struggle with is the mental game,” admitted Thorpe. “If we can overcome our own mental things in terms of being scared or making a big play we are going to be fine. We definitely improved. We played a lineup that’s not going to be a starting lineup.

“We had two more wins today than we did last weekend. We are doing good things and are going places. It’s going to be a slow process to get our mental game to back up the way we play. If we can do that we are going to be perfectly fine.”

Parkersburg South and head coach Becky Bennett, who had Lauren Somerville on the all-tournament team, advanced to the quarterfinals before being eliminated by Hampshire 25-23 and 25-22. Somerville had an ace, eight assists and four digs in that match. Cassie Fink led PSHS with five kills, Kylee McCorkle had 11 digs while Catreena Shears and Makenna Gibson had a trio of downed spikes apiece.

All-tournament member Kyndra Pilant had 19 kills for Magnolia versus Hurricane in the opening round of the tournament, but was limited to five downed spikes in a 25-16 and 25-17 setback to Parkersburg Catholic in the quarterfinals. Blue Eagles Lenieca Grimm and and Alyssa Kocher has three aces each versus the Crusaderettes.

Woodrow Wilson’s Elysia Salon and Hampshire’s Renee Killough also made all-tournament.

Contact Jay Bennett at jbennett@newsandsentinel.com