The Paint Valley Bearcats volleyball team made memories for life Thursday as they pulled off a come-from-behind upset win over top seed Waterford 17-25, 16-25, 25-22, 25-11, 15-10.
Paint Valley improved to (9-15) on the season and sent the top-seed Wildcats to a season ending loss and (17-7) record. The win places the Bearcats in the Division 4 District Final Saturday afternoon against Portsmouth Notre Dame, who swept Trimble in straight sets.
The entire complexity of the match turned on a dime with Paint Valley's 25-22 win of Set 3 to stay alive, as they then trounced the Wildcats 25-11 in the fourth set to send the match to a fifth and deciding set.
Everything about Paint Valley's play, which struggled on defense in the first two sets, completely turned for the positive in the final three sets.
6'3 senior middle hitter Kelsey Dunn blasted 17 kills and had 7 serving aces to lead the win. Olivia Smith added 9 kills and 15 digs, Leah McFadden pitched-in 7 kills and 27 digs to go along with 4 aces and Savanah Smith punched 6 kills. Other defensive stars were Abbi Stanforth with 25 digs and Bailey Brumfield with 21 digs.
The Bearcats were greatly aided by 21 team serving aces which helped to propel the come-back.
Waterford had three hitters with double-digit digs with 13 from Alex Teters, 11 from Denise Young and 10 from Ana Sophia Beardsley. Haley Klintworth had 29 digs for the Wildcats.
Paint Valley's appearance in the district is the first since 2013, as they are now one-step away from the "Sweet 16".
Relive the excitement of the Bearcats win with play-by-play coverage from WKKJ's Mike Smith and Tom Beard in our podcast link found below....