Monarchs Fall In Volleyball State Quarterfinals
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CHARLESTON -- The John Marshall Monarchs bowed out of the WVSSAC Class AAA state volleyball tournament on Wednesday, falling in five sets to the Winfield Generals inside the Charleston Coliseum.
John Marshall, the No. 3 seed in the Class AAA bracket, fell to the six-seeded Generals 25-21, 25-22, 21-25, 25-21 in the state quarterfinals.
"Definitely not the game we expected," John Marshall head coach Chelsea Eikleberry said after the game. "I thought we did a great job of preparing this week, watched plenty of film on Winfield. We worked on some things-- Winfield just ultimately played a better game than we did. They were great at the net, they played great coverage, and we just couldn’t get points when we needed them.
"I’m so proud of my girls. We had a great season despite everything that was thrown our way. We battled through a lot of just kind of crazy things, some injuries, and they still competed. They showed up every week ready to practice, ready to play. And despite the loss today, it was still a really great season with a great group of girls."
John Marshall finishes their season with a 24-17 record, a Class AAA Region 1 championship, and as runners-up in OVAC Class 5A. After making it to the state semifinals last season, Eikleberry said it was her team's goal to make it back to Charleston.
"We set goals to get back down here at the beginning of the season," Eikleberry said. "We played an incredibly tough schedule. We played a lot of big schools to make us better. You know, maybe the wins and losses weren’t exactly where we wanted them throughout the season, but I think it prepared these girls.
"Ultimately today, we just didn’t have our best game, and sometimes that happens. I told the girls, that’s part of life. Sometimes you’re on and sometimes you’re not, and this loss today doesn’t take away from who they are as individuals and who they are as athletes, because we had a lot of really great moments this year."
Departing from the Monarchs program are seniors Sarah Hess, Ella Finley, Gracen Chavanak, Zoey Gunn, Mya Berisford, Sarah Naome, Jenna McCardle and Isla Urbanek.
"Finishing the season with eight seniors, that’s a huge loss," Eikleberry said. "Saying goodbye to them especially, it’s really hard, shedding some tears today in the locker room because it’s really hard to say goodbye when you have really good girls that I love and care about so deeply. But I know they’re going to go do big things. We wish them the best of luck in their future, whatever next step that is.
"We’re going to have to rebuild. We’ll work hard in the offseason. We have some girls returning, three juniors, and then we have three sophomores coming back. So we do have some room to add some girls. We’ll work hard in the offseason. We’ll get them in the gym, we’ll play some summer volleyball, and hopefully come back ready to work hard again next fall and hopefully be back down here in November."