MORGANTOWN — The Morgantown Mohigans earned a hard-fought 3-0 victory over rival University on Thursday evening on Baker’s Ridge in a battle of the top two teams in the OVAC.
With the win, the Mohigans (19-2) secured the number one seed for the OVAC tournament next week, and the Hawks (16-3) will be the two-seed.
Despite the 3-0 set count in the MHS victory, the match was close the entire way and could have swung either way multiple times throughout. In fact, until Morgantown extended its lead in the second set to 18-15, neither team had held a lead greater than two points. The first set was won by MHS 26-24, but never at any point did either team hold a lead of three or more.
“Definitely a close match tonight, I’m proud of our team for fighting through the chaos,” MHS head coach Erica Manor said. “They turned it around tonight when they needed to. Credit to UHS they were aggressive and served well and really moved us around tonight.”
The first set was as close as any could be, with both teams playing well and giving little room for their opponents to build any momentum.
Tied at 17, an extended rally ensued that saw MHS coming away with a point that seemed it could change the set in favor of the visitors. Once again the hosts responded, closing the door on the Mohigans’ chances to pull away and eventually finding a run of points that gave the Hawks a 23-21 lead.
However, MHS rallied out of a timeout and took the opening set by the score of 26-24.
The second set began the same as the first, with both teams keeping the other in check each time the attempt was made at extending a lead. The Mohigans forced an early timeout by the Hawks after a 4-0 run to take an 8-6 lead swung control in favor of MHS.
Good offense by the Hawks and some wayward serving from MHS saw the score tied at 14-all before a scoring run for the visitors eventually saw their lead swell to five, 21-16. UHS responded well and cut the lead to two at 24-22, but on match point, MHS junior Audrey Buck tipped the ball over the net with a fake set that caught the UHS defense off guard and fell to the floor to end the second set in favor of MHS 25-22.
“We struggled with their tips tonight and hurt ourselves some,” UHS head coach Nick Lusk said. “We can’t seem to get over the hump against MHS, but I’m proud of the effort. I thought we played well and swung well.”
The third set opened in favor of MHS 7-2, but after an early timeout the Hawks eventually tied the match at 11 that forced a timeout from the Mohigans. Serving errors piled up for MHS throughout the match and helped the Hawks keep the score close at times it could’ve gotten away.
“Our defense picked up when our serving was giving us problems,” Manor said. “When you give away that point you immediately have to flip your mindset to defense and fighting to get the ball back and I thought we did well managing that when they were serving well.”
A positive response came out of the MHS huddle and it opened a lead of three points at 16-13 that was held throughout most of the rest of the set at 19-17, then 21-18.
The Hawks rallied for a spirited 5-0 run to take a 23-21 lead that caused another Mohigan timeout, needing to win the set to force a fourth one.
Once again though, the Mohigans proved why they are the club to beat at the moment, and rallied for four straight points to secure the victory in the third set 25-23, and the match 3-0.
Thursday night marked the annual Pink Game, raising money and awareness for breast cancer during the month of October.
“It’s a really great cause,” Lusk said. “We have the girls involved and the Bonnie’s Bus fundraiser is here which means a lot to us.”
