HITTING — Big Red’s Annaresa Perdue hits the ball in front of teammate Julianna Kramer during Monday’s game at the Crimson Center. – Andrew Grimm
STEUBENVILLE — Monday’s matchup between Wheeling Central and Big Red was a battle between two teams needing points as the OVAC Tournament deadline looms.
Naturally, there was some back-and-forth action in these circumstances, but it was the Maroon Knights who capitalized on their opportunities and made a big contribution to the Class 3A field.
Wheeling Central (6-3) won the first set, then overcame a disappointing second set to win the third and fourth sets to beat Big Red (7-6).
“It was a battle. It was a good win for us against a 5A school.” “This is a big win because the rest of our schedule is very tough and we need to play like this every night,” Wheeling Central head coach Beth Blake said.
“We’re right in the middle of the pack (in the 3A standings), so we needed this win. We played really hard and hopefully we can keep the momentum going.”
Wheeling Central, on a four-game winning streak, sits in seventh place in this week’s standings. They have big games against Martins Ferry today and Monroe Central later this week, both of which are currently ranked above them in 3A.
There were several key moments that could have led to a different outcome for the Big Red, ranked sixth in Class 5A, but most of them didn’t lead to the outcome they wanted.
“We didn’t deliver in some key moments and that’s something we need to work harder on.” “The responsibility is on me. There were a lot of times where we needed to buckle up and get points and we just didn’t,” Big Red head coach Logan Colabella said.
“After losing the first set, we bounced back and fought back, but then lost the next two. Wheeling Central is a very good team.”
After Wheeling Central defeated Big Red 25-23 in the first set, Big Red stormed back in a big way in the second set.
After trailing early, Steubenville scored nine straight points to start a 17-3 run, and Wheeling Central fought back to get within five, but the Big Red held on to win, 25-18.
The next two games were back-and-forth affairs. In the third game, the Knights fought their way to victory, 25-22. In the fourth game, the Big Red was down by six but came back to tie the game at 23, but Wheeling Central scored the final two points to fight back and take the win.
“Winning the third set meant a lot to us.” Blake said. “We have a tendency to get in holes and fight to get back out of them, so to get the lead back meant a lot to us. We were also down big in the second set but fought our way back.”
For the Knights, Remy Peters had 12 kills, Sydney Doyle had 10 kills, Laney Peters had nine kills, 16 points and 33 assists, Kaitlyn Blake had eight kills and 18 points, Olivia Stevens had 16 digs and Reagan Jones had 14 digs.
The Big Red was led by Alaina Vrable with 10 kills and an ace, Julianna Kramer with nine kills, five points and an ace, Emma Lyons with five blocks and eight kills, Kaitlyn Smith with 20 assists, seven points and two kills, Aubrey Slusser with 14 assists and Sena Smith with five digs and four points.
The Big Red visits Edison on Thursday looking to extend their winning streak on the season against the Wildcats.
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