CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Wirt County’s volleyball program has a standard of excellence.
The 2026 version of the Tigers had no problem reaching it.
Behind strong serve reception throughout all three sets, Wirt County took care of East Hardy 25-17, 25-12, 25-12 in the Class A state championship Thursday morning inside Vandalia Health Coliseum.
“We just stress it takes everyone and a collective unit from top to bottom,” Wirt head coach Katie Frazier said. “All of our girls put in the effort every day. We are a six-rotation player, a serving sub, a practice player getting in here and there. It truly takes everybody and they have bought into that. They’re really good about anything and everything we ask of them. They buy into this program and they want to win. We keep a strict schedule on them sometimes as far as things go, but they listen and buy in, and it was a good team effort.”
The result gives the Tigers (34-8-1) and second straight and 15th state championship, three of which Frazier has served as head coach for. The first 12 Tigers’ titles were under the direction of her mother, former head coach Janet Frazier.
“My mom has all the others before me, so it’s going to take a while to catch up. We’re going to celebrate this one, but look forward to next year,” Frazier said.
FINAL: Wirt County 3, East Hardy 0
Tigers top Cougars 25-17, 25-12, 25-12 to win second straight Class A state championship and 15th title in volleyball. https://t.co/1DPnp0kbVx
— Greg Carey (@gcarey938) November 12, 2026
No. 1 seed WCHS had a strong showing throughout its matchup with the No. 2 Cougars (28-14) and never trailed while taking the opening set.
Leading 14-7 in Game 1, Wirt put to rest any thought of an East Hardy rally by rattling off the next four points, including a Breigyn Dawson kill for an 18-7 advantage.
The Cougars battled back to get to within 20-13 after consecutive kills from Madison Kerr and Hannah Riggle, but they were unable to get closer than seven the rest of the way.
East Hardy started the second set in strong fashion and had leads of 4-2 and 7-5 before the Tigers gained control with 10 straight points. Dawson served during the decisive stretch and her ace left Wirt with a 15-7 lead.
EHHS trailed 22-12 before the Tigers got a kill from Peyton McKown and consecutive kills from Sophie Homage to gain a 2-0 lead in the match.
Wirt broke a 2-all tie with five straight points in the third and final set and hardly looked back, before finishing things off on Simone Hall’s kill to win Game 3 by the same margin as Game 2.
“We lost four seniors, including our libero outside and a couple strong defensive players. We were able to pick that back up this year,” Frazier said. “The style of our game pretty much stays the same year in and year out. We tweak things as far as certain players and what they may have to offer, but overall, we just try to play our game and stay the same.”
On 41 total receptions, the Tigers had a mere two errors.
“Our defense was lights out this morning,” Frazier said. “Serve-receive and defense. Mya [Hatcher] does great at the libero position, and anyone else that’s back there, we really stress strong serve-receive, win the serve and serve-receive battle and you’ll win a lot of games.”
Hall had 15 of her team’s 47 kills and Romage added 10.
Dawson accounted for all but four of her team’s 45 assists and four of its 10 kills.
Kerr led the Cougars with 10 kills and Xavia Barber added 12 assists.
CLASS A ALL-TOURNAMENT TEAM
Ella Botts, Summit Christian
Ari White, Gilmer County
Kaelyn Mullins, Gilmer County
Sophie Brady, Madonna
Madison Owens, Madonna
Xavia Barber, East Hardy
Madison Kerr, East Hardy
Breigyn Dawson, Wirt County