BLACKSVILLE — Call Wednesday’s match a warm-up match, call it practice, call it a mulligan. Whatever it was, it had no lingering effect on the Clay-Battelle volleyball team as they rebounded from Wednesday’s loss to defeat South Harrison in four sets to claim their second consecutive section championship in front of a boisterous home crowd inside the Statler-Wilson Gymnasium.
“They’re resilient,” C-B coach Matt Wood said of his team. “They were ready to come back out and play (Thursday). We weren’t going to let this one get away tonight.”
South Harrison swept the CeeBees 3-0 Wednesday night in the first match of the Region 2, Section 2 championship, setting the stage for Thursday’s winner-take-all bout.
C-B got in a hole early as the Hawks took the first set Thursday, 25-19, but the CeeBees recovered, eliminated the unforced errors that plagued them the night before and won the next three sets 25-10, 25-19 and 25-17 behind stellar serving and a strong attack.
“We had a long conversation about that before the game,” Wood said. “About how many errors we made (Wednesday) and how many points (South Harrison) actually earned. That was a priority tonight.”
South Harrison held a 17-4 lead at one point in the first set as it looked like Thursday’s rematch might have the same result as the night before. But C-B rebounded nicely from that point forward. Despite losing the first set, they scored 15 of the final 23 points and carried that momentum into a dominating second set, which they won by 15 points.
“It’s just determination,” senior captain Kendal Saul said. “We knew we had the capability to win and we pulled through.
“We really pulled together. We pulled our coverage and our passes started getting a lot better.”
Saul and fellow captain Caitlynn Patterson had inspiring performances for the CeeBees. Saul racked up five aces, three kills, 17 assists and five digs while Patterson charted eight aces, eight kills and 11 digs.
“They’re just amazing,” Wood said. “I told them tonight, they’re just amazing.”
As a team, C-B’s serving was leagues better than Wednesday and it showed with 22 team aces.
“I think our serve percentage (Wednesday) was around 83%, we’re usually up in the 90s and we did much better (Thursday),” Wood said.
“Serving is definitely a key part of our game,” Patterson added. “A lot of our points come from aces and as a strong serving team, I think that’s the best part of us. We know how to hit the ball and we know where it’s going to go at all times.”
The CeeBees also hit much better Thursday with 28 total kills. Patterson attributed the improvement to better defense and passing.
“I think, overall, our defense came together,” she said. “With a good pass and a good set, we can get amazing hits out there. At the end of the day, we’re a good team and we can hit it as hard as we can and get our points.”
Hannah Hanlin finished second on the team with seven kills and Elyse Moore had five. Moore also dished out 10 assists while Heaven Tennant had 15 digs.
“We’re always hustling,” Wood said. “That’s one thing you cannot fault these girls for, their effort. Every single night in and out, they play hard and go at it.”
C-B had a clear home-court advantage Thursday as the home crowd was loud and locked in for every point.
“The crowd was awesome,” Wood beamed. “I love playing at home with the student section and the fans. Our girls feed off of that positive energy so it was just great.”
The section championship is just the second in school history, following up the one from last year.
“I’m over the moon right now, I think we all are,” Saul said. “We’re very excited and very happy to bring another sectional title back to Clay-Battelle.”
After winning the section last season, Clay-Battelle lost in the first round of the regional and missed out on a trip to the state tournament. The CeeBees are determined to have a different result Saturday morning at Doddridge County.
“That means a lot for us,” Patterson said. “Last year we went to regionals and we came up short. We’ve been watching a lot of film, getting better and we have enough momentum that I think we have a good chance of going to states this year.”
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