Parkersburg South's Shyanne Hays tips the ball past the double block of Parkersburg's Chloe Gribble (7) and Kennedy Porter (18) during the Big Reds' 3-1 victory Tuesday night inside Memorial Fieldhouse during the Class AAAA, Region IV, Section 2 tournament. (Photo by Jay W. Bennett)

PARKERSBURG — It took four sets against rival Parkersburg South here Tuesday evening inside Memorial Fieldhouse, but Parkersburg High clinched a spot in next Wednesday’s Class AAAA, Region IV tournament after handing the Patriots a 25-19, 25-20, 21-25 and 25-14 setback in the Section 2 winner’s bracket match.

The victory for the Big Reds of head coach Erin Thorpe improved their record to 24-23-2.

Sectional champions this season automatically will be the host site for the regional co-finals.

“They are doing it like basketball so there are going to be co-regional champions,” admitted coach Thorpe, who got a match-high four aces, 16 assists and 14 kills from Ava Sayre with Kennedy Porter going for a baker’s dozen downed spikes and Emma Kiger putting up 18 assists with a pair of aces.

“We just need to make sure we buckle down and play our game. We make things a lot harder than we need to. We miss a lot of serves. We do serve very aggressively. We like to dig ourselves a hole and then dig ourselves back out of it a lot and we need to not do that from here on out.”

Parkersburg’s Emma Kiger serves the ball during Tuesday’s sectional match against South. (Photo by Jay W. Bennett)

Parkersburg South advanced in the double-elimination tournament by beating Capital 26-24, 25-7 and 25-18.

“I think that we showed tonight that we are able to compete with PHS,” said South head coach Emily Tracewell, who received match-highs of 17 kills from Shyanne Hays and 28 assists from Leah Snyder.

“We’re peaking at the right part of the season and just putting the extra puzzle pieces together, getting the effort the whole entire time because they want to win and we have the skills to win, but for some reason we are lacking the confidence to win.”

Big Red libero Lilly Boice started the match with an ace. PHS pushed ahead 15-11 following an ace by Ella Collins, but the Patriots took their first lead at 16-15 with libero Brylee Hatcher serving when Hays put one to the floor for a Snyder assist thanks to a pass from Natalie Lauer, who had two aces.

A pair of service tallies from Kiger put the red and white ahead for good. Sayre served the hosts to a 1-0 advantage in the best-of-five match when Roxie Sprague registered a kill on set point.

Parkersburg South libero Brylee Hatcher bumps the ball during Tuesday’s sectional match against PHS. (Photo by Jay W. Bennett)

Three kills by Hays helped PSHS to a quick 3-2 cushion in set two. Later, the senior proceeded to score six straight points, which included two aces, to help her team to an 11-3 advantage. Despite holding a 17-10 lead after another Hays kill, the Big Reds scored 15 of the final 18 points to take control as Gracie Duncan finished things off with a kill.

Kills from Hays, Lexi Smith, Hanna Vaught as well as a Snyder ace helped the Patriots to a 7-5 lead in set three. Sayre had two aces to help push the Big Reds back in front 11-9, but the Patriots used a kill from Addi Moon and a Hatcher ace to make it 16-13.

PHS fell behind 22-14 and closed it to 22-17 after a Porter ace and 24-21 following one of Brenan Harvey’s trio of aces, but Vaught had one of her 11 kills to force set four.

Coach Tracewell’s squad led 8-5 in set four, but Harvey had a string of five straight from the service line to give PHS the advantage.

Vaught found a hole in the PHS defense and mashed a kill to close the Patriots within a pair at 12-10, but the hosts scored the next three points to take control thanks to a kill apiece from Chloe Gribble and Sayre along with a Porter block of Moon.

Parkersburg’s Gracie Duncan goes on the attack during Tuesday’s sectional match against South. (Photo by Jay W. Bennett)

Harvey clinched the regional berth with an ace on match point.

“When we’re on we look really good,” added coach Thorpe. “When we have our energy, our excitement, when we are communicating well we look really good. It’s just dependent on us, not the team that we play.”

Contact Jay Bennett at jbennett@newsandsentinel.com

Parkersburg's Kennedy Porter sets the ball as teammates Ella Collins (1) and Brenan Harvey (22) look on during Tuesday’s sectional match against South. (Photo by Jay W. Bennett)