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PHS volleyball falls to Lewis County on senior night

By Jay W. Bennett 4 min read

PARKERSBURG – Tenley Pickens and Eliza Bush shared match-high kill honors with 11 apiece here Wednesday inside Memorial Fieldhouse to help lead Lewis County to a 25-21, 25-19 and 25-22 sweep of Parkersburg on senior night.

PHS libero Grace Inboden, who had a match-high five aces, was honored alongside fellow seniors TC Allen, Calista Mace, Chloe Gribble and Bella Bowman.

The Big Reds of head coach Tammy Fisher, who will carry a 10-21-3 mark into Saturday's Mountain State Athletic Conference tournament as the host school, were unable to find their rhythm as Gribble's eight kills and Ily Bowman's seven downed spikes led the red and white attack.

"I think there were a lot of emotions that first game. Not just with the seniors, but the other kids upset you know. No excuses," admitted Fisher, who got 19 assists from Liddy Wilfong, three aces by Kelina Utietiang and a pair of aces apiece by Gribble and Mace.

"They should've played better, bottom line. We got to play harder. We got to play our game. We got to quit making stupid mistakes. We made so many stupid mistakes, and have energy. Again, I think they just didn't have it tonight. There were so many emotions."

When the opening set was all said and done the Minutemaids of third-year head coach Crystal Wagner were able to hold on for the narrow win despite at one point holding an 18-10 advantage.

Lewis County, which improved to 32-12-1 and will take a seven-match winning streak into next week's postseason, led from the start after Lila Fealy opened things with an ace.

Despite trailing 22-14, PHS got all three of Utietiang's aces in a late spurt as the Big Reds closed it to 23-21 following a Gribble kill and ace. PHS had 11 unforced errors in the set, which included four from the service line.

A Sophie Gum kill with Malea Clem serving along with a Bush ace helped the Minutemaids to a quick 5-1 start in set two. PHS still trailed 9-3 after a Reghan Carson ace and 11-5 after a Clem kill. A pair of kills by Ily Bowman and one from Gribble kept PHS within striking distance at 13-8. The hosts eventually cut it to 22-17 with the help of a Bella Jeffrey kill, a Gribble ace and two downed spikes by Jillian Farley, but it wasn't enough.

Back-to-back aces from Inboden after a Gribble kill got the Big Reds going early in set three. Despite falling behind 4-1, Lewis County was able to tie it at five thanks to a Gum block of Mace and the visitors took the lead for good at 8-7 on a PHS serving error.

The Big Reds only trailed 23-21 after kills by Wilfong and Gribble were sandwiched around an Inboden ace, but a bad pass led to a Bush kill as Bush finished things off by putting one last attack to the floor via the final of Fealy's match-high 20 assists.

"We've been honing in on a lot of overs and any weaknesses that we've had and we've been trying to turn those weaknesses into strengths," said Wagner. "I think the girls did a great job of doing that tonight.

"We go into tournament play next week and we definitely should be ranked one in our region because we've beat everyone in our region. We've had a very tough schedule. Just hoping to continue what we said in our first huddle this year and make it to states."

Contact Jay Bennett at jbennett@newsandsentinel.com

At Memorial Fieldhouse

Lewis County d. Parkersburg 25-21, 25-19, 25-22

Lewis County (32-12-1) stats: Lila Fealy 8 pts, 2 aces, 20 AST, 3 K; Malea Clem 7 pts, 2 aces, 2 K; Reghan Carson 6 pts, 1 ace, 2 K; Sophie Gum 7 pts, 1 K, 2 B; Tenley Pickens 4 pts, 3 aces, 1 AST, 11 K; Eliza Bush 4 pts, 1 ace, 11 K, 3 D; Paisley Adkins 3 D

Parkersburg (10-21-3) stats: Grace Inboden 10 pts, 5 aces; Kelina Utietiang 7 pts, 3 aces, 1 K; Bella Bowman 3 pts, 1 ace; Chloe Gribble 3 pts, 2 aces, 8 K; Calista Mace 3 pts, 2 aces, 2 K; Liddy Wilfong 19 AST, 1 K; Ily Bowman 7 K; Jillian Farley 3 K; Bella Jeffrey 1 K

Next matches: MSAC at Parkersburg on Saturday; Lewis County in postseason next week, TBD.

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