Magnolia Claims Sectional Crown Over Maroon Knights
Nick Henthorn Trending
WHEELING - Though the play on the court at the Central Catholic Athletic Center was back-and-forth, the final results from the Class A, Region 1, Section 1 championship on Thursday were one-sided, with the Magnolia Blue Eagles (22-9) managing to sweep the Wheeling Central Catholic Maroon Knights (12-12) by razor-thin margins, 25-22, 25-23, 25-23.
"We had a lot of energy tonight," Magnolia head coach Roger Clegg said. "A lot of energy, a lot of confidence, and that's something we've been working on even during the summer with the kids this year- coming out, knowing what your job is, playing hard and playing with a lot of energy."
"Even though we got a loss, I thought we played hard," Wheeling Central Catholic head coach Beth Blake said. "Every set could've gone our way, 22-25, 23-25 every set. A couple balls here and there, missed serves, it is what it is. Now it just puts us in a harder spot Saturday but we'll regroup tomorrow, practice, and see what we could do."
Errors hurt Wheeling Central, particularly in the first set, where the Maroon Knights put themselves behind the eight ball, at one point down 10-7 behind seven errors in the early goings.
In a trio of sets decided by a handful of points, every misstep counted.
"We had some missed serves, we weren't covering the middle chip well," Blake said. "I thought in the second and third set we did better, third set we had a big lead, just a couple things went wrong and it could've gone either way."
Though Wheeling Central had to slog through early errors, they straightened out their play to trail by only a couple points throughout the set, down 17-15, then 17-18.
Magnolia kept their slim lead to the end, the Blue Eagles' Delanie Postlethwait delivering a kill to go ahead 23-21, creating enough distance to win the set 25-22.
The second set likewise remained tight the duration of play, the two teams spending plenty of time locked in a tie, 9-9, 13-13, 18-18, and 20-20 after Postlethwait and Lainey Peters traded kills. Olivia Stephens nailed a service ace to put the Knights ahead 22-21, but a service error tied things at 22.
It was Jenna Blain who sealed the set for the Eagles with a kill, 25-23.
Wheeling Central leapt out to a quick lead in the third set, 11-4, but from there Magnolia started climbing back into the game, working their way back to down only a handful, 16-13.
Errors reared their head again, with a service error and hitting error by Magnolia pushing Wheeling Central ahead 21-17, but the Eagles' play overcame the deficit, a big solo block by Kaylee Williams and kill by Jenna Blain bringing the score to 23-22 Knights.
A hitting error and reaching over the net gave a pair of free points to Magnolia to take their first lead of the set, 24-23, before a service ace by Sidney Knight ended the set and match, 25-23.
While the Blue Eagles made their share of mistakes Thursday, they were able to limit their mistakes with more success than their opponents, a factor which Magnolia was focusing on throughout the evening.
"We talked about that last night, we talked about that in between each set," Clegg said of playing a clean game. "Winning the free ball differential, having less free balls than they did, and also keeping our errors down. We were okay in that tonight, and the big thing was keeping unforced errors down, and keeping them out of system as much as we could."
Jessa Anderson had six digs and two aces for Magnolia while Knight led the team with 11 service points.
Oliva Stephens had 20 digs for Wheeling Central, Helene Crall had 11 kills, and Peters had 18 assists.
By capturing the sectional crown, Magnolia will move on to play the runner-up to Class A Region 1 Section 2, Ritchie County, in regional play. Conversely, Wheeling Central matches up with the Section 2 champ, Williamstown.