By Stephen Smoot
In the battle of the three cats last Wednesday, the Tigers of Wirt County came out on top. In the morning, they defeated Pendleton County three sets to none. Evening saw the Tigers nearly repeat the feat against the Cougars of East Hardy as they qualified to play in the Class A title game.
Sometimes a team goes to the state tournament with everything in its favor, hammering out weaknesses and forging the strengths through the challenges of the season.
Other teams go with the hope of doing well, but have the expectation of using the experience to better themselves and position the team for greater success the next year. That was Pendleton County’s experience in Charleston.
Despite the loss and putting the set scores aside, they responded, learned, and developed as the game progressed.
Set one opened with Alyssa Bennett, ranking first among all players in all classes in aces. She took the first serve. Carolyn Varner set up Laney Bowers to deliver a clean shot to the middle, scoring the first point. Wirt followed by hitting the ball out.
The two teams exchanged points briefly until Wirt took over the serve with the game tied at three.
Wirt County as a squad has several players who consistently deliver serves at a high rate of speed and flat trajectory without making mistakes. This served as their most important edge over anyone else going into the tournament.
The serves from the Tigers overcame the Wildcats’ usual technique of corralling them. Instead of popping back toward the net, the serves ricocheted off their fists and hands.
Wirt County rattled off four aces out of five serves to take an 8-3 advantage. Pendleton County responded with Colbie Wimer aiming a spike to the back line. The Tigers took back the serve quickly and then showed off the athleticism and precision of their front line in firing spikes hard and fast to openings in the floor.
Down 10-6, Callie Judy stepped in. Last year in Institute, her serves stupefied Wildcat opponents. She picked up two aces to close the gap, but then Wirt County scored and ended the short run. They built a six-point lead at 14-8, but the Wildcats once again fought back.
Tia Heavner popped the ball in the middle after Wirt gave up a point on an error. This set the score at 14-10. A little later, Bowers picked on a defender by firing a shot off her hands for a Wildcat point. Bennett once again served. After a Wirt mistake, she scored an ace to pull her team to just a two-point disadvantage at 15-13.
Wirt countered by scoring seven straight. Varner set up a Bowers spike to break the run, but then the Tigers broke free and stormed to a 25-16 set victory.
Wirt County scored the initial two in set two, but a block at the net by Kinsley Price got the Wildcats on the scoreboard. Chesnee Colaw knotted the score at two with an ace, but a spike and an ace put Wirt back ahead 4-2.
Later, down 6-3, Colaw fielded a serve, got the ball to Varner who set up Brynlynn Waggy for a spike that put the score at 6-4. Phoebe Pownell took the serve and a Wimer block closed the lead to one, but quickly Wirt County put up seven points and took a commanding lead.
From that point on, the Tigers took control through the remainder of the second and also the third sets, 25-10 and 25-9, respectively.
Pendleton County in some ways adapted. By the end of the second set, they showed they could handle the difficult serves. At that point, the dominance of the Wirt front line picked up. Never did players stop diving on the floor, trying to first squeeze out a set win, then after that win on plays.
Wirt County took away a victory, but gave Pendleton County a gift as well. That gift lay in teaching the very young, very hungry, but very gifted Wildcats what they have to do as the squad looks ahead to next year.
Later in the day, Wirt County manhandled East Hardy three sets to one.
In the final match of the Class A tournament, Wirt County got by Gilmer County in four sets to claim the championship title.
