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Kyndra Johnson gets milestone as Yellowjackets sweep Tigers

By Jay W. Bennett 5 min read

WILLIAMSTOWN -- Junior Grace Boone's pass to Kyndra Johnson and her ensuing assist to Shelby Smith capped senior night for fourth-ranked Class AA Williamstown here Thursday as the Yellowjackets swept fellow Little Kanawha Conference rival Wirt County by scores of 25-15, 25-20 and 25-16.

Johnson was joined in being honored pregame by Smith and fellow 12th-graders Annabelle Haught, Kiersten Kerby, Gabi Holl and Becca Shamblin, whose kill in the second set not only gave the 'Jackets a 24-20 cushion, but marked the 3,000th career assist for Johnson.

"I did not know. No," admitted Johnson, who stuffed the stat sheet with match-highs of seven aces and 21 assists while chipping in a trio of kills, nine blocks and seven digs. "I knew, I had thought that I'd be within range, but I didn't know it would be today. Probably like the end of the season.

"Senior night we sometimes start off slow because we had something we just did and that was senior night tonight, but I really think that we got the job done, and we didn't really start off slow.

We just beat them in three. We did good."

The setter added of having Shamblin due the honors "that was pretty sweet. I remember when I got to set her for her 1,000th kill, so it's pretty sweet she got to hit my 3,000th assist."

Addie Stephens (two aces, seven assists, 14 kills, six blocks, one dig) and Breigyn Dawson (two aces, eight assists, seven kills) led the way for the fifth-ranked Class A Tigers, who received match-highs of 11 digs from libero Makayla Moore and 10 blocks by Izzy Speece.

"We've made a lot of changes throughout the season," admitted Wirt County head coach Katie Frazier, whose squad slipped to 13-11 and plays Tuesday at Wahama. "We're not a very big team.

"We're a pretty young team, but doing the best that we can. There's good effort up to this point and hoping to just really the last month of the season focus in on what we need to do and make the end of season push."

A pair of kills from Stephens along with a Katherine Lemley ace gave the orange and black a quick 3-0 advantage in the opening set, but a Tiger attack error was followed by four straight service points from Addi Kerby, which included an ace, as the Yellowjackets broke a nine-all tie and pushed ahead for good.

Wirt County only trailed 17-14 after a Stephens service tally, but Johnson followed with a second-hit tip kill and Holl then added an ace. Johnson and Haught helped extend the cushion to 21-14 after consecutive double blocks on Dawson. Kiersten Kerby's kill put the Tigers in a 22-15 hole and the visitors allowed set point on an attack error.

Dawson's ace gave the Tigers an early 2-0 lead in the second set, but Johnson served for three straight aces. A Speece block of Haught put the Tigers ahead 9-6, but Williamstown continued its double blocking scheme as Stephens was denied by Haught and Kiersten Kerby.

A WCHS service error actually put the hosts ahead for good at 11-10, but Bella Starcher had an ace during her run of three service tallies to help close the deficit to 15-14. Back-to-back aces from Haught put the Tigers in a 19-14 hole as coach Frazier called a timeout.

Speece and Brooke Mills had consecutive downed spikes for the Tigers, who tried to rally and closed it to 21-20 after a Stephens kill and a Dawson ace. However, the 'Jackets scored the final last points with Johnson toeing the service line for the final trio.

The Tigers fell behind 20-11 in set three after WHS libero Keatyn Haynes, who had eight digs, served up a quartet of service points, which included an ace.

Head coach Rachelle Cole's Yellowjackets, who improved to 17-5-1 and compete Saturday at Buffalo's Invitational, ended the match with kills from Reagan Corbett, Haught and Smith.

"We're going to host a sectional game I believe," said coach Cole, who added of having such an early senior night "we had to change the schedule and the game that should've been senior night got canceled, so then we had to bump it up. We were a little bit questioning how tonight was going to go. We changed the lineup again and the coaches knew that Kyndra was close to 3,000 and then it was senior night, and then we had to recognize our little kids' program that we do because the last game of the season got canceled, so we had to move everything to the same date.

"Wirt is going to get some good balls and they had some really hard hits, but we had some really good defensive plays. I think it was a true team effort tonight. I think it was kind of also like a sweet moment that Kyndra set Becca for her 3,000th assist because they've both played the whole time for four years, so that was kind of a pretty cool moment that that's the way that that worked out."

Contact Jay Bennett at jbennett@newsandsentinel.com

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