Toronto Volleyball Sweeps Wheeling Central
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WHEELING - A young Wheeling Central volleyball team played toe-to-toe against visiting Toronto Wednesday night, but it just wasn't enough to hand the Red Knights their first loss of the season.
Toronto (7-0) stayed unblemished with a 25-14, 25-19 and 25-23 triumph on Coach Skip Prosser Court inside the Maroon Knights Athletic Complex in East Wheeling.
"They (Wheeling Central) have a young team. I think they graduated like 12 girls," Toronto head coach Lori Lynn Jackson said. "It's always a battle down here. We never underestimate them. We know they have some athletes."
Jackson was pleased with the way her team played.
"We have six seniors on the team and I have two freshmen in my starting lineup," she said. "Everybody prepares for Hannah because she is a powerhouse, but we have a lot of other athletes on our team that our opponents don't prepare for. At all times, I've got six athletes on the floor."
Toronto took control of the first set early on as it snapped a 3-all deadlock with a 10-4 run that upped the margin to 13-7. Then, after the Maroon Knights (3-2) scored, the Red Knights reeled off four straight points before Wheeling Central scored again for a 17-9 advantage.
Three points by the visitors built the lead to 20-9 before the hosts tried to make a comeback with four consecutive points of their own.
However, Toronto scored six of the final seven to win, 25-14.
The second set was deadlocked at 13 before Toronto rattled off six straight points and seven of the next eight for a 20-14 reading.
Wheeling Central was able to close to within 22-19, but three consecutive points gave the Red Knights a 2-0 lead.
The final set was one for the ages as the small school rivals were stalemated 15 times as they alternated leads for most of the set.
The teams were knotted at 20 before Toronto built leads of 23-20 and 24-21 only to watch Wheeling Central hang tough, closing to 24-23 before not being able to return the ball to the other side of the net in three hits.
"They are a very good team. We got up in the 20s the last two sets," first-year Wheeling Central head coach Beth Blake said. "The No. 7 (Hannah Dobbs) really hits the ball well and hits it hard. She's a really good player, but we are very young. We lost a lot of players to graduation from last year and only have one returning starter.
"We had two freshmen in the lineup tonight. Every night we're getting better," Blake added. "So come the end of the season we should be right where we want to be."
Toronto's Hannah Dobbs, who has committed to NCAA Division I University of Maryland-Baltimore County, led the way with 23 kills and 17 digs. Many of her kills came with a high velocity. Andrea Reeves added 44 assists and two blocks while Ashton Thomas had nine kills, six digs and a trio of aces. Michelle Anderson charted 32 digs and Callie Anderson recorded half-a-dozen kills.
For Wheeling Central, Helene Crall had eight kills and Kaitlyn Blake six. Lainey Peters contributed 11 assists and Maddie Miehle had eight digs. Sydney Doyle finished with four blocks.