Photo by Cody Nespor Wheeling Central’s Nicole Reasbeck (11) splits two Wellsville blockers with a hit during Tuesday’s OVAC Class 2A semifinal match at Wheeling Central.

WHEELING — Wellsville entered the OVAC volleyball tournament with a sparkling 18-1 record. The No. 3 Tigers showed just how resilient they are Tuesday in a come-from-behind OVAC 2A semifinal victory over second-seeded Wheeling Central.

After falling down two sets to none to the Maroon Knights (15-4), Wellsville rattled off a convincing 25-12 victory in set three before taking sets four and five by scores of 25-20 and 15-13.

“We knew they were a good team,” Central coach Kara Conners said. “I think they had a slow start, but we knew that they were going to come back strong…The third set for us was rough.”

A six-point run early in set three gave the Tigers an 11-4 lead and they would eventually piece together a 10-2 run that sealed the victory.

Wheeling Central showed resolve in the fourth set, using a five-point swing to lead 11-7, but Wellsville responded with six straight scores to pull ahead 13-11. The Tigers would eventually claim eight of the final nine points to win by five.

“They were picking up what we were putting down,” Conners said of Wellsville’s defense. “They have some great players and they were very consistent servers. At times we got a little rattled.”

In the deciding fifth set, the Tigers scored seven-of-eight points early to lead 9-4 before Central fought back to cut the lead to 10-9. Once Wellsville got to 14-10, however, it was only a matter of time until the Tigers got the final point to take the set and the match.

“We fought until the end, we just came up a little bit short,” Conners said. “We worked really hard and we played really hard, so I’m proud of the girls.”

Wellsville was led by Presley Stokes, who racked up 27 kills, 10 blocks, 12 assists and five aces. Alana Amato provided 14 kills and 10 blocks of her own with four aces. Bella Poppelriter supported with 27 assists, 16 digs and six aces and Kaylee Rawson recorded six blocks.

Wheeling Central won the first two sets by narrow scores of 25-20 and 25-18 largely by leaning on the strength of its powerful outside hitters Nicole Reasbeck and Kamy Conners. Reasbeck finished the match with 22 kills and Conners had 19.

The effectivness of those hits dwindled as the match wore on, however, as Wellsville played better and better on defense.

“We were getting blocked and they picked up a lot of our hits on defense,” Coach Conners said.

Reasbeck also recorded 21 digs, seven assists and a like number of blocks. Kamy Conners had 20 digs with four aces. Gabby Leadbitter led with 27 digs while Lainey Peters dished out 17 assists and Alexis Hood charted 12 helpers.

“We’re a good team too,” Coach Conners said. “We made it to the OVACs and we haven’t done that for a couple of years. I’m very proud of them and we’re ready to pick back up and push to try and go down to states next.”