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Wirt County sweeps Wahama to advance to state

By Jay W. Bennett 5 min read

ELIZABETH -- Wirt County received match-highs of four aces from Jasmine Williams, 14 kills by Simone Hall and 32 assists via Breigyn Dawson as the Tigers punched their ticket to next week's state tournament in Charleston after sweeping Wahama – 25-20, 25-14 and 25-13 – here Wednesday evening in a Class A, Region IV, co-final.

The defending state champion Tigers of head coach Katie Frazier, who improved to 31-9-1 and had defeated the White Falcons earlier in the season, also received seven kills apiece from Peyten McKown and Sophie Romage.

"Credit to Wahama," said Frazier, who watched Lia Casenelli serve up a trio of aces while Romage chipped in a dozen digs with Hall and Mya Hatcher collecting eight apiece. "They have improved a lot from beginning to end this year. They made me very nervous coming into this game. We planned for them and prepped for them, but especially after warmups, watching them go through warmups, we were a little bit uneasy.

"We knew they really, really wanted this. Our girls had to kind of mentally lock in a little bit more and think about what they were doing between every point. We came out really strong and I'm just glad we were able to stay consistent the whole way through from the beginning until the end tonight."

Wahama second-year head coach Emma Litchfield, who loses seniors Mahayla Jones and Kirie Ward, finished their campaign at 15-14-1. The White Falcons' only sectional championship in school history came back in 2011.

"This is the closest we've been to the state tournament for sure," admitted Litchfield, who got a dozen kills from Sophie Gray, five by Ward, a trio by Eve Smith, two by Mahayla Jones and one by Moore. "We have banners in our gym that have openings for sectional and regional champions and there's only one sectional championship up there and that was a while ago when it was very different. Volleyball hasn't been a program at Wahama for a long time.

"It's a fairly new program, but this is the best Wahama team they've had. Super proud of them. I love them all to death. Super proud of the work they've put in. This season has been completely different than any other season. They've wanted to work. They wanted the extra practices. They bond as a team together. They listen. They do what I ask of them and I couldn't ask for a better group."

Wahama opened up the best-of-five match with two Ward service points as Gray had a kill for the first tally.

An ace by Jones and then a Gray kill via libero Aly Barnitz' bump set had the Tigers down 6-4 and it was 8-6 White Falcons after another Gray downed spike via one of Smith's 15 assists.

The Tigers still trailed by a pair in the opening set at 9-7 when Avery Parsons and Jones had a double block and again at 10-8 when Ward registered one of her five kills.

However, Dawson got an easy kill for a side out on a bad pass and the Tigers went in front to stay after a trio of Addie Williams service points.

An ace by Dawson forced the White Falcons to call timeout down 16-12, but the visitors refused to go away.

Gray's back row attack kill and then a double block by Parsons and Moore kept the deficit at four, 19-15, but Wahama then got three consecutive points from Barnitz to make it 19-18.

Tiger Brook Mills finally got a side out for the hosts when her attack wasn't returned. Casenelli's ace put the orange and black ahead 23-19 as the hosts reached set point on a Dawson kill via an Addie Williams back set. Wirt County earned set point on an in the net call.

Coach Frazier's program didn't trail the rest of the way.

Casenelli's ace opened up set two and Wahama called timeout down 6-1 following an Addie Williams ace. The cushion expanded to 16-6 after Jasmine Williams registered three successive aces as the Tigers won going away.

Hall and McKown put a pair to the floor to open set three. Down 4-0, Jones had a kill and then served for two straight, but Wahama never got closer than 4-3.

Wirt County got match point with Jasmine Williams serving after Dawson assisted on Hall's final kill.

"Credit to everybody, top to bottom," Frazier added. "We really stress that everybody in our gym, whether you are in all six rotations, you're a serving sub, if you are somebody at practice that you're just like a practice player, everybody is just as important. Credit to everybody again. Top to bottom, we have a really strong group of girls.

"They just want to be in there and make everybody better. They're selfless. I will say a special shoutout to Rayann (Nay). She had to step in whenever Simone was hurt for part of the year and she did a great, great job at that, so we're very thankful for her. It's a team effort here that everybody puts in the effort."

Contact Jay Bennett at jbennett@newsandsentinel.com

Class A, Region IV, co-final

at Wirt County High School

#1 Wirt County d. #4 Wahama 25-20, 25-14, 25-13

Wahama (15-14-1) stats: Kirie Ward 3 pts, 1 AST, 5 K; Mahayla Jones 4 pts, 1 ace, 2 K; Eve Smith 1 pts, 15 AST, 3 K; Sophie Gray 2 pts, 1 ace, 1 AST, 12 K; Aly Barnitz 3 pts, 1 AST; Ady Vanmeter 4 pts, 1 ace; Kobe Moore 1 K

Wirt County (31-9-1) stats: Peyten McKown 1 AST, 7 K, 3 B; Brook Mills 2 K, 5 D; Breigyn Dawson 5 pts, 2 aces, 2 K, 32 AST, 3 B, 7 D; Simone Hall 4 pts, 14 K, 8 D; Mya Hatcher 8 D;

Jasmine Williams 11 pts, 4 aces; Lia Casenelli 8 pts, 3 aces, 4 D; Sophie Romage 7 K, 12 D; Cate Wigal 1 pt; Addie Williams 13 pts, 1 ace, 1 K, 1 AST, 1 B

Next match: Wirt County advances to the Class A state tournament quarterfinals on Tuesday in Charleston.

Starting at /week.