Southeastern and Westfall are headed to the Division 3 Regional Volleyball Sweet 16, after winning district titles at Waverly High School, Saturday. Both Huntington and Piketon come up on the short-end of the four SVC teams remaining in D-3.
Southeastern Beats Huntington
The Panthers did it with a sweep of SVC foe- Huntington, by scores of (25-21, 25-16, 25-9). Huntington put a bit of a scare in Southeastern to start, leading 19-16 in Set 1, before the Panthers stepped on the gas and won 25-21. SE had little trouble the rest of the match, pulling away for the sweep.
Ella Skeens led Southeastern with 17 kills, 6 blocks, 18 digs and 2 aces, followed by Jessica Bolte with 11 kills, 5 blocks and an ace. Rachel Collins pounded 8 kills with 4 blocks. Morgan Wilson dug the ball 13 times and Skylar Hice had 11 digs, along with 6 kills. Sierra Delong added 2 kills and 8 digs. Lauren Goebel dished-out 35 assists, 8 digs and 1 ace.
No stats are available yet from Huntington, who finish ( ) on the season.
Southeastern improves to (22-3) and will play Westfall in the Regional Semis at 6pm Thursday at Logan High School. 94 Country WKKJ will broadcast the match with airtime at 5:45pm, although there is a chance the match time could be changed, based on recent practice if Tuscarawas Valley advances. In recent years, TV has been granted the earlier match by OHSAA due to their more lengthy travel time to Logan High School.
Westfall Pulls Second Upset with Five Set Thriller Over Alexander
The (10-15) Mustangs have a good fit wearing the "Cinderella Slipper" in the tournament, having upset #1 seed Adena and now taking down #2 seed Alexander by scores of (13-25, 14-25, 25-17, 25-23, 15-8).
Defensively, the Mustangs were scrappy, with Madison Staten-Knief digging the ball 37 times, Darby Beavers and Caitlyn Young each had 22 digs, Josie Williams and Brittany Brown with 13 each and Samantha Tackett with 12. Another big factor for Westfall was their 11 serving aces.
Westfall freshman Kristen Phillips had 12 kills, 9 of which came in Sets 3 & 4. Darby Beavers added 9, Samantha Tackett with 7 and Allie Kaiser with 6.
Mallory Rankin of Alexander led all players with 48 digs, while Karsyn Rains had 30.
Hear the exciting finish of the Westfall win over Alexander, as WKKJ picked up the coverage in-progress with Greg Bigam and B. Jay Dailey....
Wheelersburg sweeps Piketon
The Redstreaks finish as district runner-up for a second straight season, losing to top-seed Wheelersburg in a (25-20, 25-15, 25-22) sweep. Piketon closes their season at (18-7).
The Pirates had a more balanced attack across the front-line, making a difference with Piketon trying to defend. Kill leaders for The Burg had 13, 10, 9, 5 and 5 kills respectively. Piketon was led by D-3 District Player of the Year- Cami Chandler with 16 kills and All Disrict Jordan Morris with 15. After them, Riley Williams and Macie Conley had 2 kills each. Grace Lightle led the defense with 27 digs and Morris added 16.
For Wheelersburg, All District Ellie Ruby led them with 19 digs and Kaylee Darnell had 14. More stats will be available later.
(24-2) Wheelersburg now faces unbeaten and defending Regional Champ Tuscarawas Valley on Thursday in Logan. The Trojans crushed Buckeye Trail for the East District (25-8, 25-17, 25-15).
Podcast of the broadcast available below...