By Stephen Smoot
Last year, Pendleton County Wildcats scored a major upset when it eliminated the number one seeded Buffalo Bison from the state volleyball tournament.
This year they could have the opportunity to repeat that feat, but only if the Wildcats can down the Magnolia Blue Eagles.
The Weztel County based school brings an 11 and 10 record to the contest. Down the stretch, they twice decisively defeated St. Marys, the eighth seeded squad, who will meet East Hardy, the top seeded team.
Some of their more significant wins came over Beallsville, Ohio, who boasted a 13 and 10 record, Brooke High School, who was six and 20, but also is a much larger school, and 10 and 13 Doddridge County.
Magnolia defeated 13-14-1 Madonna to earn their way into the state tournament, marking their first trip since 2018. Senior Sienna McKeever leads the team and was selected to the Ohio Valley Athletic Conference All-Star game.
The Wildcats boast a record of 23-7-1 coming into the state tournament. Pendleton County has scored a hat trick in making 2024 their third consecutive trip to Charleston (or in the case of 2024, Institute, a nearby suburb.)
After handing Moorefield a narrow defeat to commence the season, the Wildcats earned wins over solid squads, including Class AAA tournament qualifier Elkins, Class AAA Keyser, Class AA tournament qualifier Wyoming East, and Class A seventh seed River View. A three set to nothing defeat of Tucker County got the Wildcats into the tournament.
Magnolia has no wins over any teams that qualified for the state tournament in any classification.
Madison Day, head coach, shared that the team had spent much of the season forging an identity and not allowing pursuit of the perfect to interfere with winning volleyball. The statistics show that Pendleton County has developed multiple ways to attack an opponent.
Baylee Beachler has racked up 33 serving aces during the course of the season. Lizzie Alt and Alyssa Bennett follow with 15 and 14, respectively. The Wildcats as a team recorded 2.9 aces per set, which according to MaxPreps is .1 above the national average.
The Wildcats performed exceptionally well in teamwork. Receiving and setting up other players for big plays served as a mainstay of success. Brynlynn Waggy in her first season as a varsity mainstay used her height, range, and athleticism to execute 62 assists. Emily Poling with 28, Callie Judy with 26 and Emma Hartman with 16 follow.
Pendleton County specialized in kills. The NCAA defines a “kill” as “any time an attack is unreturnable by an opposition and is the direct cause of the opponent not returning a ball.” This includes “a blocking error by the opposition.” Alt led the team in kills with 69, followed by Beachler’s 39 and Avery Townsend’s 23.
Should Pendleton County go to the second round, they will face the winner of the first round matchup of first seeded East Hardy and eighth seeded St. Marys. The Cougars suffered a first round upset last year, but return an even stronger team.
Pendleton County has struggled against East Hardy this season, but in their final contest of the year, played four out of five sets very close.
Other teams in the tournament include Greenbrier West, Wirt County, and Sherman.
Pendleton County will play at 8:30 a.m. on Dec. 2 on the campus of West Virginia State University in Institute.
