Parkersburg South Comes Back vs. Monarchs
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PARKERSBURG – Things weren't looking too optimistic for Parkersburg South's volleyball team here Tuesday night after losing the opening two sets to John Marshall, but the Patriots managed to put it all together inside the Rod Oldham Athletic Center after that en route to snapping a four-game losing skid thanks to a 23-25, 22-25, 25-19, 25-18 and 17-15 triumph versus the Monarchs.
The now 13-6 Patriots of head coach Emily Tracewell had five service errors apiece in the opening pair of sets, but managed to persevere through after the Monarchs had just swept PSHS 2-0 during a triangular last week.
"I had told them I didn't see a problem of them being able to come back and get the reverse sweep," admitted Tracewell, whose program got a match-high 17 kills from Jess Price with Presley Allen (16), Olivia Conaway (8), Ella Collins (8) and Quinn Boylard (6) also contributing to the hitting attack.
"We've had a rough week last week playing some tough teams, but also a lot of injuries and sicknesses, so we had to do different lineups and this is still a different lineup. We were putting different people in the back row to see what works best. I'm proud of them for being able to work well together even with different people out there."
The Monarchs of head coach Chelsea Eikleberry, who slipped to 12-7 and welcome in University for a 5:30 p.m. dual today, received eight kills apiece from Gracen Chavanak and Sarah Naome, while Paislee Babiczuk chipped in six downed spikes, Isla Urbanek five and Cassidy Blake a quartet.
John Marshall's only lead in the winner-take-all fifth set came at 1-0 via a South attack error.
Although aces by Maddie Keller, who had a match-high five, along with one by Allen made it 9-6, the visitors tied it at 10. Chavanak had a kill and a solo block on Conaway, while Urbanek put one to the floor via one of Sarah Hess' 17 assists and Bre Defibaugh got a service tally on a PSHS attack error.
Although the Patriots pushed ahead 13-11 when Conaway stuffed Babizcuk, the hosts had another attack error and then a Naome downed spiked squared it at 13.
A JMHS attack error gave South an opportunity for match point, but Babiczuk came up with a block to square it again.
While John Marshall proceeded to make a bad pass that led to another match point shot for the Patriots, the hosts followed suit with a bad pass of their own to make it 15-15.
However, Aubree Harner got the last of her match-high 30 assists on an Allen kill and the Patriots celebrated the victory after Bolyard and Price registered a double block on the third match point.
"One of our seniors, Lexi Smith, usually plays the middle for us," added Tracewell. "Quinn Bolyard, who played it now, has never played the middle before and she did a great job for us today.
"We've been throwing in random people during practice in the lineup just to see what works best and I think everybody we had out there today was able to do their job, and they did it well. It was good for us."
Naome contributed a pair of aces in the setback, Gianna Polsinelli had an ace and nine assists while Ella Finley chipped in a trio of kills.
"I think the biggest plan honestly is to relax a little bit because we've been playing a lot of games lately and I think it was nice to be able to win this five set to see that we have the energy we need to win, but really just focus on the little things in the lineup, and seeing what we can figure out before the game on Monday," added Tracewell, who got three aces from libero Natalie Lauer and 19 assists by Peyton Gosset. "Kind of resting a little bit for a few days."
However, that doesn't mean any less practice time is coming up for the Patriots.
"We don't have days off," stressed the coach.