CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Prior to this season, Hedgesville’s only state championship in volleyball came back in 2002.
The Eagles won’t forget their second anytime soon.
In a thrilling finale to high school volleyball season Thursday, Hedgesville outlasted Morgantown 20-25, 25-20, 17-25, 27-25, 15-12 at the Charleston Coliseum to become the inaugural Class AAAA champion.
“All the games here today were really good and four or five-set matches,” Eagles’ head coach Allison Whitford said. “We’re excited that we got to win the first one ever.”
Despite leading throughout the fourth set and holding a 24-20 advantage, the top seed Eagles almost never forced a decisive fifth set.
Starting with a Paige Brink kill, No. 2 Morgantown ran off five consecutive points to move to within one point of a four-set victory.
Parker Sutherland’s kill prolonged the match and was followed by a Bryana Ryder ace that put Hedgesville in front, 26-25.
The Mohigans nearly tied it at 26 on separate occasions, but the Eagles’ Alexa Smith came up with separate sprawling digs to prolong the point, which the Eagles ultimately earned for a 27-25 victory.
“This is the state championship — the time you should be hitting the floor,” Whitford said. “We had to fight for every point. Morgantown got in rotations where they went on runs and we got in rotations where we went on runs. Toward the end of that set, Morgantown went on their run and we had to make sure we kept pushing one so we could get of that rotation and start swinging on our side.”
Smith, whose mother Megan Smith played on the Eagles’ title-winning team 22 years ago, credited her mentality for the potential game-saving plays.
“It’s all the mentality of never letting the ball hit the floor,” she said. “That’s what we said when we were in the huddle and we knew we couldn’t let anything drop. We had to put our all out there and I’m always going to throw my body out there and hopefully get it done.”
HHS carried that momentum into the fifth set and never trailed during it, scoring the first two points and upping its lead to 7-3 before a Morgantown timeout.
The Eagles still led by four points at 9-5 before the defending state champion Mohigans offered a strong response and ran off three consecutive points to pull to within one.
Hedgesville regained its composure during a timeout and led 12-9 before the Mohigans called one of their own.
Trailing 13-10, Morgantown got an Abigail Paulsen kill to go with Leah Greeny’s block, cutting the Eagles’ lead to one.
Yet a costly service error brought about game point for Hedgesville, and the top seed finished things off when Addison Sykes set up teammate Gracie Brown for a kill that the Mohigans sent back over the net, but out of bounds.
“The fifth set is always about momentum and we say to push five, push five, push five [points] and kind of break it down into thirds there,” Whitford said. “We were comfortable with the 6-3 lead and knew we had to stay up, because of the rotations they’re really good in.“
MHS led throughout the opening set, building advantages of 12-7 and 16-9 to get off to its desired start. Isabella Marra’s ace late in the set created a 24-20 lead, and the Mohigans produced the next point for a 1-0 lead.
Hedgesville countered in the second set, and after leading 11-10, the Eagles scored six of the next seven points for an 18-12 advantage, which came about as a result of Ryder’s ace.
The Eagles eventually led 23-16, and although Morgantown countered with three straight points, Hedgesville got a kill from Sutherland to finish off the five-point win in the second set.
Morgantown was relatively dominant throughout the third set and got off to a strong start to lead, 8-4. Greeny’s ace later in the set made it 13-5, and the Mohigans led 16-7 before the teams began to trade points. MHS was able to finish it off for the 25-17 victory and 2-1 lead, forcing the Eagles to play with their backs against the wall the remainder of the contest.
That was just fine for Hedgesville, which was appearing in its third state championship and first since 2021 when it came up short against Musselman.
“I hope that we set the precedent and in years to come, the next teams can do this as well,” Smith said. “Hopefully we pushed them to want that even more and now they know the feeling.”
Class AAAA all-tournament team
Parker Sutherland, Hedgesville
Gracie Brown, Hedgesville
Giatta Iquinto, Morgantown
Paige Brink, Morgantown
Avery Ellis, Spring Valley
Lilly Adkins, Spring Valley
Jillian Yost, Cabell Midland
Zoe Pray, George Washington