photo by: WVSSAC

Wheeling Central’s Lainey Peters serves the ball during the Maroon Knights’ state tournament game against Charleston Catholic on Wednesday inside the Charleston Coliseum.

CHARLESTON — It was the end of Wheeling Central’s volleyball season on Wednesday night, as the Maroon Knights bowed out in the Class AA state semifinals to defending state champion Philip Barbour, but it was a season that marked, the Knight hope, the start of a ‘new era’ for Wheeling Central volleyball.

Central, who entered the state tournament ranked No. 6 in the eight-team Class AA field, defeated No. 3 Charleston Catholic in straight sets for a victory in the quarterfinals, 25-21, 25-20, 25-23, but fell to No. 2 Philip Barbour in four sets, 19-25, 25-20, 25-21, 25-21 in the night cap of the day’s action.

“This is probably the hardest working girls I’ve ever worked with,” Wheeling Central head coach Grace White said after the semifinals. “They have battled through a lot of adversity this year, just within our team, and outside things, and have just always found a way to get the job done. It’s a testament to them and how hard they work that we’re down in Charleston right now, and we won that first game, and we pushed the state champs of 2024 to four tonight. I mean, for a program that hasn’t been there since ’91 and as the first-year head coach for these girls, I mean, they’ve just set up a new era of Central volleyball.”

Against Philip Barbour, Wheeling Central’s Lainey Peters started the match off hot with a big kill on the outside, and the momentum carried all the way through the first set, one that Central took 25-19.

Central led at one point in each of the next three sets, all tightly contested, but the experienced Colts came out on top each time.

The third set was tied as late as 15-15, and the fourth set was tied 16-16 at one point.

“We played hard that first set, and we got it done, and [Philip Barbour’s] a good team,” White said. “They’re a notoriously good program. Like I said, they won state last year. So they’ve been in those situations. And us not being in those situations at this level, I think, kind of took us back a little bit, because we were so dominant in our first game today.

But they have a good team. They have a good program. The found their rhythm, especially in that third set, and their offense just started clicking and their defense was phenomenal. They picked up a lot of great balls.”

Earlier in the day against Charleston Catholic, Lainey Peters starred in the first set, serving up the final five points to help the Maroon capture an early advantage. The third set was the closest, with two errors from Central bringing Charleston within a point, 24-23, but it was a Fighting Irish foot fault that ended the game on the next serve.

“We had swept them in a tri, two matches,” White said of Charleston Catholic. “So we knew how they played. We knew our weaknesses and we knew what we had to clean up. And the girls, that game has kind of always been in our minds. We just had a feeling that we were going to play them.

“I guess No. 3 to No. 6 is an upset, but in my opinion and a lot of others’ opinions down here in Charleston, we were a little underrated– and rightfully so, when you haven’t been to the state tournament in a while– but I just think we were the better team.”

Wheeling Central graduates a strong senior class of Lainey Peters, Maddie Miehle, Alyssa Parker, Kaitlin Brodegard and Helene Crall.