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Big Reds ousted by Knights in regional co-final

By Jay W. Bennett 5 min read

PARKERSBURG -- Parkersburg head coach Erin Thorpe was hoping the third time playing Cabell Midland would be the charm here Wednesday evening inside Memorial Fieldhouse during a Class AAAA, Region IV, Co-Final, but Knight setter Jilly Yost double-doubled with 10 digs and a match-high 38 assists to help the visitors punch their ticket to next week's state tournament in Charleston following a 25-23, 25-20 and 25-16 sweep.

Coach Thorpe's Big Reds, who have basically been without senior Lola Rosenbohm the entire season, watched libero Lilly Boice, Emma Kiger and Roxie Sprague play their final match for the red and white.

"The four seniors this year, they are amazing," said coach Thorpe, whose team finished 25-24-2. "She (Rosenbohm) got hurt at our second home game here when we played Huntington. She went down with a rolled ankle, blew a ligament and has to have surgery. They are probably the heart and soul of the team.

"It's going to be hard to replace them next year, but we are fortunate because we don't have a lot to replace, so that's good. We'll have a lot of experience returning next year and I'm really excited about that. I think that this year was a good year for my juniors and I think that will give them confidence going into their senior year."

The Knights of first-year head coach Shannon Gerencir, who received a match-high 13 kills from Katie Lawson, also got eight downed spikes apiece from Baylee Smith, Madison Mount and Holly Watts, while Chloe Anderson chipped in six kills.

Earlier this season, Cabell Midland won its first Mountain State Athletic Conference championship inside Memorial Fieldhouse.

"I didn't even get the job until the day of tryouts," admitted Gerencier, who led Capital High to the Class AAA state title back in 2001 against the Big Reds of Carl Harnish before going to coach at W.Va. State. "I did know some of them. I came back from Lock Haven and started coaching club, so I had three of them since they were 15 in club.

"I swore I would never do it again and get back into high school. It just seemed right and club is great, it's fun and awesome. High school just means so much more to them because it's a big deal. I finally caved a little bit and decided I would do it.

"They have been phenomenal. They had never won MSAC. Parkersburg is a great little team. I mean they really are. They have some powerful hitters. Their defense keeps everything off the floor and it's really hard to score on them. They have good servers."

Boice, who had a pair of aces and four assists, opened the regional with three straight service points as Chloe Gribble had the first of her five kills and Kennedy Porter put down the first of her team-high nine kills.

Brenan Harvey's bump set assist to Ava Sayre, who had eight kills and 15 assists, kept PHS in the lead at 8-7, but the Knights rallied with Payton Bower, who had two aces and 11 digs, at the service line. A five-point run, which included a double block by Lawson and Watts on Sprague, gave the Knights a 12-8 cushion.

Boice's ace put the red and white back in front 13-12 as CMHS still trailed by one at 19-18 with Rylee Plymale (six digs) serving when Yost executed a quick set for a Lawson kill.

Despite holding a 20-18 advantage and leading 21-20 following kills by Harvey, a Yost second touch dump kill put the visitors ahead for good at 22-21. Mount's kill sealed set point in the best-of-five match.

Cabell Midland libero Kaylee Kohl, who had two assists and 17 digs, opened set two with a pair of service tallies.

Coach Gerencier called for a timeout after Sayre and Porter had a kill apiece and Sprague blocked Duncan for a 7-5 lead.

PHS still led 16-14 after a Gracie Duncan kill and extended it to 18-14 thanks to a Porter ace, but the visitors scored the next seven points to flip momentum. Anderson had two kills in the spurt.

Down 24-19, the Big Reds were able to stave off one set point thanks to a kill from Kiger, but another Yost quick set to Lawson put the Big Reds in a 2-0 hole.

A downed spike apiece from Porter and Sayre via Kiger assists had the must-win third set even at four, but Smith's kill from another Yost quick set followed as Cabell Midland led for good and earned match point when PHS passed a ball out of play.

"Cabell is a great team," added coach Thorpe. "I knew it was going to be a fight. I knew it was not going to be an easy game. They hit hard. They block well. We practiced really hard to prepare for them and I think the first two sets we executed perfectly what we practiced.

"We played really well. We made very few mistakes and then toward the end of the second set we started making our usual mistakes and struggling, and then we just kind of got into our own heads the third set."

Garrison knows the difficulty of navigating through the postseason in order to get to Charleston to have a chance to vie for a state championship.

"These kids, they work really hard and they have an awful lot of heart," said the coach, who got the Knights back into the big dance for the first time since 2018 when they finished runner-up to Spring Valley.

"They've really adapted because I kind of don't know how to coach anything but college, so they get pushed maybe a little bit extra, but they responded to it really, really, well and they've adapted to their roles."

Contact Jay Bennett at jbennett@newsandsentinel.com

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