MORGANTOWN — The Morgantown High School volleyball team is returning to the court hungry in 2023 after a state runner-up finish a season ago. After falling to Musselman in the state finals, head coach Erica Manor-Sphar and her players left Charleston with their heads held high but also with their ultimate goal unmet.
Despite the graduation of Paige Brock who is now playing at Murray State, and the loss of a strong senior class, the Mohigans bring back a good chunk of last year’s roster that made a positive impact and helped them reach the state final.
With a newly remodeled gym at Morgantown High, coach Manor-Sphar and her club are excited to get back onto the court and begin their road back to Charleston.
“We are excited to have the girls in the gym again,” she said. “Practicing at the Coliseum was a lot of fun. We enjoy getting to watch the players with their clubs in the off-season and it’s always nice to see how they develop with their other teams. We have the first home game on the new court in the MHS gym on Wednesday.”
For MHS, the returning players come at nearly every position and all have experience playing in big games. Seniors Kaitlyn Anderson and the Devall twins, Grace and Isabelle, will be three impact players on every single point.
“We bring back our strong offense and defense from last year,” Manor-Sphar said. “We have been able to fill the roles seamlessly with each year as we have to continue to develop and refine our program. We now have kids that have played at States every year of their high school career and the program has been getting stronger and going further each year at states.
“We know what it takes to get to the championship game,” she continued. “So we know what more we have to give. There isn’t one game that is too big or small, we are focused on the next game and keeping everything in perspective.”
With the sport of volleyball and the talent of the players growing rapidly in not only north-central West Virginia, but the state as a whole, the Mohigans know each and every game will be tough. However, they feel it is also important to test yourselves against quality competition outside of the limits of the state as well.
“We have set up the schedule to play more tournaments, including two in Pittsburgh and one in Kentucky again,” Manor-Sphar said. “A state like Kentucky is a good test of our program on how it has improved overall. We have been continuously getting better each year at it.
“There are so many more opportunities for athletes to play now. There are local clubs and regional clubs that our kids are playing on, and we think that any opportunity for them to play for 6 or 7 more months of the year will make them more successful on our court. The Pittsburgh clubs have been great for some of our athletes, having D1 signees the last three years (Alayna Corwin, Ella Voorhees, and Paige Brock).”
Buckhannon-Upshur and Preston will visit Morgantown Wednesday for the opening matches of the season for the hosts, and the first game of any sport on the newly remodeled gymnasium at Morgantown High.
Another home match will see Hedgesville visit MHS in a rematch of last year’s semifinal at the state tournament that saw a 3-1 victory for the Mohigans.
The first of two MoHawk matches against rival University will be held on September 5 at MHS.
