MORGANTOWN — Two of the top high school volleyball teams in West Virginia are crosstown rivals. The Morgantown Mohigans and the University Hawks are each off to blazing starts to the 2024 season.
MHS and UHS have only two losses between them in over 25 matches, and they will meet on Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. inside the UHS gym on Baker’s Ridge in a huge midseason Class AAAA contest.
The defending Class AAA state champion, Morgantown, has picked up where it left off last season despite the loss of head coach Erica Manor and players like Kaitlyn Anderson and the DeVall twins, Grace and Belle, all playing collegiately now.
Led by returners Audrey Buck, Paige Brink and Giatta Iquinto, the Mohigans have just one loss and have dropped only three games thus far in 2024, holding a 14-1 record.
First-year head coach Abigail Wolfe, who previously worked as an assistant to Manor, said her team’s keys to success so far have been a consistent service game and keeping teams on their toes.
“If we can keep a team out of their system, we can control the game and play how we want,” Wolfe said. “They have a tough back row, but we believe we are prepared for it. We’ve played a very competitive schedule out of state to begin the season as we wanted to test the team, and we’ve seen some of the best teams on the East Coast.”
“We have a variety of hitters in each position, and our offense is nicely balanced,” Buck said. “UHS has great defense and service, so scoring on them will be difficult.”
Across town, the Hawks are looking to return to the state tournament for the first time since 2019, which is also the last time they defeated the Mohigans in a match.
Head coach Nick Lusk has an experienced group and knows his senior leadership is one of the Hawks’ driving forces.
“Our senior group covers a lot of ground for us on the court,” he said. “From the passing to the seniors setting in the middle, to the hitters up front. We have trust in everyone throughout the lineup and know that the younger players have a great group to learn from.
“When you ask what MHS does well, it’s more like what don’t they do well for me,” Lusk said about the Mohigans. “They are very solid in all aspects of the game.”
As a longtime coach in the area in multiple sports, Lusk says it’s special that two of the top volleyball teams are the two rival schools.
“I love it that we have two of the better teams in the state at the moment,” he said. “It says so much about the girls here and the work they put in together and individually. As far as this match, we want to win; that’s true every time we step on the floor, but the bottom line is this is one match, and win or lose, we can learn from this for when we see them down the road.”
First serve on Baker’s Ridge is set for 6:30 p.m. Tuesday evening.
