Wilson turns the tables for Exeter in District 3 Class 4A girls volleyball tournament

After falling in the BCIAA Championship last week, the Wilson girls volleyball team got revenge Wednesday night in Reiffton as the Bulldogs defeated Exeter 3-2 in a District 3 Class 4A first-round match.

The eighth-seeded Eagles defeated Wilson 3-0 in the BCIAA Championship and were on the verge of doing so again Wednesday night before the ninth-seeded Bulldogs went on an impressive run, winning three straight sets.

“This is the fourth time we played them and we didn’t play that well,” Wilson coach Denny Werner said. “We made a lot of unnecessary mistakes in those first two sets. So to dig deep after losing five sets in a row, going back to last Thursday, we kept reminding them that you had to win one game. If you win one match and know volleyball well enough, the whole momentum can be turned around. And we were lucky enough to get game three, which prophetically changed the momentum.

“Then we were able to turn things around and end their season now. They have a very young team. We have a very young team. This will be a repeated battle over the next two years. Many starters on both teams are sophomores, so this will just be a foreshadowing of all the other battles we’ll have with them. But yes, it is of course nice to send them home.”

Sophomore Ava Legath came away with the winning point in exciting fashion in the fifth and final set. The Bulldogs (15-7) took a 14-11 lead and had the match point advantage before Exeter scored three unanswered points.

At 14-14, Exeter served out of bounds, putting Wilson in position to win. After a short volley, Legath, receiving a pass on the left side in front of the net, cunningly pushed the ball over the net and away from the opponent’s defense for the winning kill.

“It was so crazy,” Legath said. “I knew when I started this that it would be difficult, but we got through it. I’m just so incredibly proud of us as a team.

“We came into this and we wanted to win, and we wanted to win hard. Of course we were upset on Thursday, but we wanted to come back and we wanted to win this. And we are so glad we did.”

The Bulldogs won by scores of 15-25, 27-29, 25-21, 25-21 and 16-14. Trailing 21-19 in the third set and facing elimination, Wilson scored six unanswered points that ended with an ace from Nevaeh Paye, forcing a fourth set.

In the fourth set, after a 10-10 tie, the Bulldogs extended their lead to 14-10 and the Eagles did not get closer than two points off the lead. Leading 19-16, Wilson defeated Exeter 6-5.

The Eagles trailed by as many as seven points in the second set before winning and forced the tiebreak advantage several times before winning 29-27. In the first set, Exeter had a lead of as many as nine at 23-14 before winning 25-15.

“I know it’s a tough loss for the girls to handle, but I don’t really know what more you could want from a volleyball game,” Eagles coach Jason Grove said. “I know they wanted to win, but it was a competitive game from start to finish against a postseason rival. It was great, minus the result, but hats off to Wilson. They played well when it mattered and they deserved to win.”

For the Bulldogs on Wednesday, Keira Benner had 11 kills, 15 digs and 2 blocks, Ava Legath had 10 kills and 16 digs and Piper Bialek had 12 kills and 4 blocks.

Also for Wilson, Nevaeh Paye had 11 kills and 5 blocks and Clara Conner had 42 assists, 10 digs and 2 blocks.

For Exeter (14-5), Jillian Warner had 17 kills, 13 digs, 3 aces and 3 blocks, Taylor Mack had 12 kills, 11 digs and 3 aces, and Audrey Gierlich had 11 kills and 4 blocks.

With the win, Wilson will play in the quarterfinals at top-seeded Hempfield on Saturday at 1 p.m. Last season the Black Knights defeated the Bulldogs 25-18, 22-25, 26-28, 25-21, 16-14 in the District 3 Class 4A championship and Hempfield has won five straight District 3 titles. Hempfield also defeated the Bulldogs 3-2 in the 2022 Class 4A finals.

“We’ve lost to them three of the last four years,” Werner said. “They are number one. We are ninth. So they will be the big favorites. In recent years, everyone thought it would be us and them. No one thought it would be us and them this year.

“So we have nothing to lose, we’re just going for it. We’ll just be very aggressive and go for it. We’re not supposed to win, so there’s no reason to play conservatively.”

In another first-round match in Class 4A, 13th-seeded Cedar Cliff defeated fourth-seeded Twin Valley 25-22, 25-19, 25-21.

For the Raiders (12-5), Mikayla Riehl had 3 aces, 10 kills and 8 digs, Addison Hertzog had 3 aces, 9 digs and 19 assists, and Delaney Hoover had 6 kills and 2 digs.

Cedar Cliff (10-9) will play fifth-seeded Dallastown (15-2) in the quarterfinals on Saturday.

Also in Class 4A, third-seeded Chambersburg defeated 14th-seeded Governor Mifflin 25-17,25-20, 25-17.

For the Mustangs (12-7), Natalie McHugh had 5 kills, Ainsley Heller had 4 kills and Isabella Bottiglieri had 13 assists. Allison Walton scored 3 kills and 5 digs, and Olivia Long had 9 digs.

Chambersburg (17-3) will host sixth-seeded Manheim Township (15-2) in a quarterfinal on Saturday.

Originally published: October 24, 2024 at 9:38 am