photo by: Jay W. Bennett

Wheeling Central’s Lainey Peters sets the ball Wednesday during the Maroon Knights’ regional championship victory over Ravenswood.

RAVENSWOOD — Third-seeded Wheeling Central started strong and never let up here Wednesday night in the Class AA, Region I tournament as the Maroon Knights of head coach Grace White punched their ticket to next week’s state tournament by eliminating No. 2 Ravenswood 25-5, 25-19 and 25-9.

Lainey Peters, who had a dozen assists, tied younger sister Remy Peters with match-highs of eight kills and three aces while libero Liv Stephens also had a trio of aces and chipped in three kills as the program advanced to the big show for the first time since 1991.

“We knew they couldn’t hang with us for six sets. We knew the pressure was on them,” admitted the senior Lainey Peters, who watched Helene Crall contribute seven kills, Morgan Miehle six with freshman sister Teagan Peters and Jackie Maxwell collecting a trio of downed spikes apiece. “They had to beat us twice coming in so we knew we just had to come in, play hard, win in three and we’d be out of here quick.

“We’re definitely peaking at the right time. We’re peaking heading into states and that’s what we needed. We’re going to be ready. It’s been a lot of fun. It’s been our dream. We knew coming in we wanted to all play varsity together and that was our goal coming in. We knew we’d have to work hard, but that’s been our goal for a long time and to go down to state with them is going to be the best thing.”

The Red Devils of head coach Chris Michael, who ended the campaign at 36-13 and watched seniors Holli Burrows, Annie Starcher, Angelena Fowler and Peyton Mellinger play their final match, didn’t take their first lead until it was 1-0 to open set two when Anna Casto registered one of her team-high five kills via a Starcher assist with Montana Slater serving.

“That was the best performance anyone has had against us in 49 matches this year,” stated coach Michael. “Their defense was incredible. They picked up so much. Their libero was fantastic in receive.

“They moved the ball across the net to various hitters extremely well and finished with authority. They are very athletic. They can make a run in Charleston if they play that way.”

Wheeling Central’s deficit didn’t last long as the tide turned quickly to a 7-2 advantage, which forced a RHS timeout. Remy Peters had two kills and two aces in the spurt.

RHS proceeded to cut the deficit to two twice soon thereafter. With Maddie Slater toeing the service line a Burrows block of Lainey Peters made it 7-5 and it was 9-7 following a Casto ace.

Despite closing to within one at 9-8 following a Maroon Knight attack error, coach White’s squad had five different players – Lainey Peters, Miehle, Teagan Peters, Maxwell and Remy Peters – all put one to the floor and it was 16-10 following Stephens’ ace.

Ravenswood eventually made a run with Starcher at the service line and trimmed the deficit all the way to 18-17 with the help of kills from Casto and Mellinger, but couldn’t get any closer.

Chloe Groome, who had a match-high 14 assists, set Lainey Peters up for a kill to open set three.

Miehle delivered four of her downed spikes while Lainey Peters had two aces in what turned out to be a 17-3 run to open the final set.

“My assistant coach (Erica Przybysz) and I talked the whole way down ‘what do we expect? If I were in his shoes what am I preparing my girls for’ and it’s just to leave it out there,” said coach White, who got match point via a Stephens ace. “Like you got to win and so our thing was win the first five. Win the first set. Go hard the first set and then you saw the win.

“I mean they couldn’t have done it any better. They just executed our gameplan and they have been consistently since we entered the regional tournament. We have the Peters and we have the Miehles (Morgan and Maddie), two sets of sisters, so we could almost have a whole court of just sisters. It is special for Lainey to go out her senior year and Teagan to come in her freshman year and go down to state.”