MORGANTOWN — The Morgantown High School volleyball team began its season Wednesday evening at home in the newly remodeled Rowdie Center gymnasium, welcoming Preston and Buckhannon-Upshur for a tri-match.
The Mohigans earned two wins in two sweeps over both visiting teams, defeating B-U 2-0 (25-2, 25-6), and then PHS by the same score 2-0 (25-10, 25-11).
MHS began its 2023 campaign in dominant fashion as a return to Charleston is in the sights of head coach Erica Manor and her club. The Mohigans finished as the Class AAA runner-up in 2022 after being bested by Musselman in the state championship.
Manor and her players have been eager and anxiously excited to get back on the court, especially the new one in their home gym.
“I think our first opportunity to be on our new home court was exciting and the girls came out strong,” Manor said after the matches. “Our serving was very strong as we produced a lot of aces tonight and we hit the ball for good kills. I am pleased with how we showed up.”
Coming into the season, the Mohigans knew they returned a strong defensive presence from a year ago, but the offensive game looked to be just as strong for them on Wednesday in both matchups.
MHS earned 16 kills against B-U alone to go along with eight aces.
Junior setter Audrey Buck combined for 15 total assists in 33 attempted sets, without a single error. In fact, as a team, MHS only committed one setting error in both games combined.
Being able to allow each phase of the game to develop the other is something Manor says is extremely important to her players and team, and something they talk about often in practice.
“It’s super important and we emphasize that to them,” she said. “We always have the philosophy of if you can’t serve it, then you’ll have problems getting into your defense, then on the flip side, if you can’t receive and pass the ball, you can’t set up a play. We always are thinking of those sort of things and we’ve done a nice job with it and will continue to get better.”
Next, the Mohigans will face a tough test early on in the season as Parkersburg South and Hedgesville will make the trip for another tri-match at MHS on Saturday.
Morgantown and Hedgesville, who could be two of the best teams in the entire state, will face off in a rematch of last year’s Class AAA semifinal that was won by MHS 3-1 in Charleston.
The action will begin at 11:00 a.m. on Saturday morning inside the Rowdie Center gymnasium at Morgantown High School.
