From left, Parkersburg's Saige Ashcroft (13), Brenan Harvey (22), Kennedy Porter (18), Calista Mace (6) and Ava Sayre (8) celebrate a point during the Big Reds' sweep of Hurricane on Thursday night inside Memorial Fieldhouse during the Class AAAA, South Region tournament. (Photo by Jay W. Bennett)

PARKERSBURG – Hurricane libero Alyssa Garrett recorded her 1,000th career dig and Kiley Jones had a match-high dozen kills here Thursday night in the Class AAAA, South Region tournament inside Memorial Fieldhouse, but it wasn’t enough as the fifth-seeded Redskins were swept by No. 4 Parkersburg 25-17, 25-20 and 25-23.

Parkersburg’s Ava Sayre, who tied teammate Kennedy Porter with 10 kills, also joined Redskin setter Adalee McComas with a match-high 16 assists. Kelina Utietiang chipped in two aces and a baker’s dozen assists as the Big Reds of head coach Tammy Fisher are now a win away from advancing to the state tournament.

PHS, which improved to 20-17-4, now will take on host and top-seeded Cabell Midland at 6 p.m. Monday, while the Redskins will welcome in the loser between No. 8 Buckhannon-Upshur and No. 9 Oak Hill.

The Redskins, who had split with the red and white during the regular season, didn’t take their first lead until 6-5 of set two with Madelynn Alford serving when Hayden Grimmett registered a kill via a Garrett bump set.

“The basic message was we got to see how bad we want it because we didn’t show up ready to play today and a lot of that comes on me because I’m the head coach. We got to make sure they are ready to play,” admitted HHS boss Dustin Walls, who added of PHS “that’s a good ball team. Falling down like 9-1, 9-2 in the first set is kind of a tone setter. We played catch up most of the night and you can’t do that against a really good team. I don’t want to take anything away from them.

Parkersburg's Kennedy Porter tips the ball across the net during the Big Reds' sweep of Hurricane in the Class AAAA, South Region, tournament on Thursday night inside Memorial Fieldhouse. (Photo by Jay W. Bennett)

“I know we didn’t play near our best game, but they had a lot to do with it when every single person is laying out for a ball, including their middle. When Kennedy is doing that it sends a message to our team that’s like “nobody is letting the ball drop” because most middles aren’t willing to dive on every play, and I’ve seen her for basketball. She’s a gamer, but we got a lot of gamers and I’m still celebrating the fact we had someone hit 1,000 and that’s a big milestone.”

Big Red libero Brenan Harvey, who recently collected her 1,000th career dig, got things rolling when she opened the match with an ace.

Porter had a quartet of solo blocks in the opening set as PHS jumped ahead 9-1 and recorded set point with Calista Mace toeing the service line when a Chloe Gribble attack wasn’t returned.

An Ily Bowman kill helped PHS to an early 5-3 lead in set two, but the Redskins eventually moved in front at 12-10 following an Alford kill and a Lydia Peterson ace.

PHS, which is 0-3 versus Cabell Midland, finally took the lead for good at 15-14 when Gribble put down one of her eight kills and coach Walls called timeout after Sayre got another assist via a Saige Ashcroft downed spike.

Parkersburg libero Brenan Harvey sends an attack across the net during the Big Reds' sweep of Hurricane in the Class AAAA, South Region, tournament on Thursday night inside Memorial Fieldhouse. (Photo by Jay W. Bennett)

Although the visitors only trailed 22-20 after Sloane McClellan had one of her 10 assists via a Jones kill, the Big Reds tallied the final three points as Kennedy’s kill gave the hosts a commanding 2-0 edge in the best-of-five match.

Jones had three kills and Peterson added an ace and a downed spike as the ‘Skins grabbed an early 5-1 cushion in set three. PHS evened it at eight following an Utietiang ace, but coach Fisher called timeout trailing 13-10 after an ace by McComas.

PHS found itself down 17-13 when Morgan McClellan put one to the floor and it was 20-14 after the Big Reds were called for being in the net.

However, the red and white rallied and squared it at 20 via a kill from Bowman only to fall behind 22-20 following a service error and another Alford ace. PHS tied it at 22 via a Sayre mash and after back-to-back HHS attack errors Kennedy ended it with another kill.

“I am so proud of them. To host the regions here for the first time, for me personally as the head coach, and we had really good practices this week and everybody stepped it up,” stressed coach Fisher. “It includes, like I told them, all 22 of us. It was the kids on the bench cheering, the coaches, all three of us, saying ‘hey, you do this, you do that’ and they were listening to us.

Parkersburg's Ily Bowman (17) celebrates with teammates following a kill during the Big Reds' sweep of Hurricane in the Class AAAA, South Region, tournament on Thursday night inside Memorial Fieldhouse. (Photo by Jay W. Bennett)

“I’m just so proud of them and they stepped it up. Give Hurricane credit. We might see them again. Anytime we saw a hole they were so fast to get there to close it off. They did a great job. We were down 20-14 and usually we’re done. This time they didn’t give up and they started playing hard and started believing in each other. I can’t say enough about them.”

When asked how they were going to try and prepare for the Knights, coach Fisher replied “I’m not practicing Saturday. We’ll give them the weekend off to relax and reboot and go back.”

Even though coach Walls knows the situation his team is currently in is far from ideal, the Redskins still have the opportunity to reach Charleston.

“We just made it harder on ourselves, but it’s not impossible,” Walls said. “I mean we got some fighters. I’m kind of old school so I like the win or go home method on a single elim on stuff.

“Now it really is for us. If we don’t win our season is over and we’re too good of a team to not be doing that. We’ve been on a rollercoaster this year.”