Big Reds celebrate senior night with sweep of Rebels
Parkersburg’s Elliza Towner pushes the ball past the attempted double block of Ritchie County’s Andrea Davis (4) and Jayci Gray (8) during Tuesday’s senior night inside Memorial Fieldhouse. The Big Reds swept Ritchie County by consecutive scores of 25-18. (Photo by Jay W. Bennett)
Parkersburg’s Meghan Lauderman, who joined Ashlynn Eagle with a match-high four aces, digs the ball as Big Red libero Olivia Perkins looks on during Tuesday’s senior night inside Memorial Fieldhouse. The Big Reds swept Ritchie County by consecutive scores of 25-18. (Photo by Jay W. Bennett)
Parkersburg’s Elliza Towner pushes the ball past the attempted double block of Ritchie County’s Andrea Davis (4) and Jayci Gray (8) during Tuesday’s senior night inside Memorial Fieldhouse. The Big Reds swept Ritchie County by consecutive scores of 25-18. (Photo by Jay W. Bennett)
Parkersburg’s Meghan Lauderman, who joined Ashlynn Eagle with a match-high four aces, digs the ball as Big Red libero Olivia Perkins looks on during Tuesday’s senior night inside Memorial Fieldhouse. The Big Reds swept Ritchie County by consecutive scores of 25-18. (Photo by Jay W. Bennett)
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PARKERSBURG -- Ritchie County’s Sydney Kopshina had a match-high 10 kills here Tuesday inside Memorial Fieldhouse, but it wasn’t enough as host Parkersburg celebrated senior night with a consecutive 25-18 best-of-five match sweep of the Little Kanawha Conference runner-up Rebels.
Meghan Lauderman and Ashlynn Eagle, who finished with a match-high four aces apiece, were honored alongside Olivia Perkins, Caelyn Wise and Elliza Towner. Towner had an ace, seven assists and led the red and white with eight downed spikes. Perkins had an ace and three assists, while Wise had eight service tallies, an assist and five kills.
“These five girls are special because they’ve had to work hard to earn every inch of their positions,” admitted PHS head coach Erin Thorpe, who received six kills from Kennedy Porter, five by Ava Sayre and four apiece from Eagle and Lola Rosenbohm. “They’ve put in so much work in and out of season for four years so to watch them play like they do and be successful is exciting as a coach because I have personally seen everything they’ve put into it.
“They love each other and they love the game, and it really shows. I’m so proud of all of them. It was fun. We just came into senior night trying to get the seniors playing time as much as we can, and just having some fun and celebrating them. I think we did that pretty well. Everybody kind of played positions we’ve never played before and they had fun with it.”
The 20-11-2 Rebels of first-year head coach Michelle Jones fell behind 14-9 in the opening set before she called timeout. Ritchie County had seven unforced errors to that point. Although a Baylee Butta ace cut it to 15-11, the Rebels couldn’t get any closer. Lauderman had three aces during a late run and PHS earned set point on an attack error.
A Kopshina kill with Jayci Gray at the service line gave the Rebels their first lead of the match at 2-1 in set two. Gray served the visitors to a 6-1 advantage, which featured a Rae Rupert kill from a Laci Hilkey assist, but a Towner second-hit dump kill got the Big Reds going. Eagle followed with an ace and after a block by Porter, the Big Reds grabbed their first lead at 9-8 via a Sayre ace. Following an attack error by the Rebels, which put the Big Reds in front to stay, Perkins came through with an ace. Despite an ace from Rebel Andrea Davis, which made it 13-12, Towner got a kill via a Perkins assist and then added an ace as PHS started to take control. PHS led 20-15 following another Eagle ace, but the Rebels used a block by Rupert and then a kill from Kopshina to trim the deficit to three at 20-17. However, PHS scored five of the final six points to win going away.
Ritchie County came out strong in set three and built a 7-2 cushion thanks in part to four downed spikes by Kopshina and a double block by Davis and Anna Law. The Rebels still led 11-9 after a Kila Frymier ace, but PHS rallied and went ahead for good after Lauderman served for eight straight. Perkins earned match point when the Rebels were unable to return her serve.
“We have one on Thursday against Wood County Christian at home so that will be our last regular season match before we start sectionals next week,” said coach Jones, who watched Hilkey tie Sayre (three aces) for match-high assist honors with 17. “We just really struggled the last few games, even the game against Williamstown on Saturday. It was a good game, but we struggled with just giving those unforced errors.
“We’ve talked about it and that’s definitely what beat us Saturday against Williamstown and it’s what beat us tonight. If I go back and look at it here in a little bit I’m sure I’m going to see what I already think I know. We got to really tighten it up coming into sectional play. Got to get those little tiny things and the fundamentals back under control.”
PHS will carry a 20-15-5 record into Saturday’s Mountain State Athletic Conference tournament, which will be contested inside Memorial Fieldhouse.
“We’re looking at ourselves for the next week,” admitted coach Thorpe, whose team has the No. 2 seed and will take on No. 3 seed Parkersburg South next Wednesday at top-seeded Hurricane in a sectional semifinal. “We’re kind of looking past Saturday.
“We are playing Saturday, but our focus, a conference championship isn’t what we want. We want a state championship. We are looking past Saturday. If we do well Saturday, that’s great. We are focusing on ourselves for the next week. Just working on us and making sure what we need to do to get the job done.”
Contact Jay Bennett at jbennett@newsandsentinel.com