MORGANTOWN — The Morgantown High School volleyball team earned a 3-0 sweep over John Marshall in an OVAC Class 5A volleyball tournament semifinal on Tuesday night inside the Rowdie Center.
With the victory, MHS advances to the championship game on Saturday at 1 p.m. at Union Local High School in Belmont, Ohio against the winner of tomorrow’s match between University and Warren (Oh.).
The Mohigans (20-2) downed the Monarchs (13-11) in straight sets 25-19, 25-17, 25-19 to earn their 20th win of the season and a chance at another OVAC title.
The first set started off with a bang as both teams came out ready to play. The Monarchs were the team to pull ahead early on 9-5, as their defensive front came up with some big blocks in the opening stages of the match.
The Mohigans weathered the storm instead of electing for a timeout and fought their way back into the set, earning seven out of ten points to tie the game at 12-12.
“Early on I wanted to let them play it out on the court and build some mental toughness,” MHS head coach Erica Manor said. “I like to give them the opportunity to figure it out themselves before stopping the match to huddle up and bringing it in myself.”
The Monarchs flipped momentum a few points later and snatched a lead of their own at 18-14, taking advantage of MHS errors and forcing the hosts to call timeout.
The conversation in the huddle worked as MHS ended the first set on an 11-1 scoring run to end the opening set and go ahead 1-0 in the match.
Twice in the early stages of the second set, MHS held leads of three points but JM evened the score just as quickly. The Monarchs managed to take its first lead of the second set at 13-11 but allowed the Mohigans to go on another scoring run of five straight points and called timeout trailing 16-13.
“Their offensive game was strong as they moved the ball around a lot,” Manor said. “They have some big hitters in the middle and did a nice job of making it difficult for us to return some of those balls.”
One thing that stands out for MHS is the ability of the hitters in the back line, as players like junior Paige Brink can still send the ball over the net with good pace and movement despite having to hit it from the back of the court.
“We love having that back row options when we can’t set our pins,” Manor said. “Paige is so good at getting power behind the ball and some of them are lights out when she cranks it and it’s hard to get a hold of.”
MHS denied a JM comeback in the second set to go ahead 2-0 in the match.
The third set opened as the second did with MHS extending a lead but JM fighting back to tie the match. This time it was at 11 but as they did in the second set, the Mohigans built a lead at 16-13 and didn’t look back from there.
MHS won the third set 25-19 to earn the sweep and move on to Saturday’s championship match.
