By Stephen Smoot
Tygarts Valley brought their squad from across the mountain to challenge Pendleton County and got bulldogged by a Wildcat team gaining experience and confidence.
The visitors opened service in the initial set, but the Wildcats took the score and the serve immediately. Chesnee Colaw served first for the home team, firing an ace to the back line for a 2-0 advantage.
Shortly after the opening of the game and up 3-2, Pendleton County took the serve. Breena Bowers stepped in and fired an ace off the hands of a back line defender. Emily Poling then corralled a shot, popped it up to Phoebe Pownell, who then set Poling back up for a scoring play against the Bulldogs.
Four serves later, with Bowers still in service, Pendleton County rattled off six straight aces. When Tygarts Valley could return it, the Wildcats stingy defense shut down all attempts at scoring. Down 14-2, the Bulldogs fired back a return. Colaw passed it to Pownell, who then set up Brynlynn Waggy for a spike to the middle and a 15-2 lead. On the very next play, Poling put the ball up for Pownall, who popped up a nice set for Colbie Wimer to deliver a spike.
Pendleton County dominated the first set 25-2.
The second set opened with the service of Alyssa Bennett. The Bulldog return arced to Wimer who got the ball to Pownell. She set up Laney Bowers for a hard spike and the first score of the set.
Not long after, the Wildcats built up an 8-2 lead. Tygarts Valley scored three of the next seven to close the score to 12-5. Clara Raines took the serve and promptly gave her team an ace and its 13th point. On her next serve, the Bulldogs put back a return. Raines herself gathered the ball and put the ball in the air for Callie Judy. Judy lofted a ball for Waggy who drove a spike into the middle of the defense.
Raines then put three consecutive aces across, the second finding nothing but floor. By the time the Bulldogs got the serve back, the Wildcats had pushed the lead to 17-6.
Bennett got the serve with her team up 21-7 and scored an ace with her first of the series. Next, a volley went to Tia Heavner who tapped the ball to the middle and scored. Another ace and a sure shot by Laney Bowers closed out the set with another win, 25-7.
By set number three, Tygarts Valley had started to put their game together. As they battled to extend the game, they beat themselves less often and returned shots more capably. Pendleton County, as they had in the previous sets, took the early lead.
Down 3-1, however, the Bulldogs started to bite. They took advantage of a few Wildcat miscues and also scored on their own improved play. An ace from the visitors put them up 4-3. Pendleton County knotted it back up when Breena Bowers set up Wimer for a big spike.
On the very next serve, Tygarts Valley blocked a spike. Breena Bowers hustled almost all the way across the court to extend the volley, sending it back across for no return and a 5-4 Wildcat advantage.
The Bulldogs took the lead one more time at 7-6 before relinquishing it permanently. Judy put an ace across to regain the lead 8-7. She sent two more serves across for aces and a 10-7 lead. A six to two run extended the lead to 16-9.
Colaw helped to close out the set and the game with five of the final six serves resulting in aces and a final set three score of 25-11.
The Wildcats will host Pocahontas today and Tucker County on Tuesday.
