No matter what happened to Paden City’s volleyball team Tuesday after press time in the sectional tournament, this season already has been one to remember for Coach Fred King and the Lady ‘Cats.

So far, they are one of the top contenders in the OVAC, with 20 victories to their credit, including the Nov. 1 Mason-Dixon Conference championship where the Lady ‘Cats bested Valley High School 2-0 in semifinals and Bishop Donahue 2-1 in the finals.

In the championship match, Paden City was able to take care of the Lady Bishops in two out of three sets, 25-21, 21-25, and 25-16. Three girls served into double digits with Amber Palmer leading the way with 12, followed by Alli Bertozzi and Dominique Craft with 10 each. All three had at least one ace. Both Amanda Sellers and Shauna Durant had five.

Bertozzi, as she has done all year, gave her opponents fits as she tallied up 21 kills. Kim Davis had seven, with Amanda Tallman scoring four, and Amy Toman with two.

The digs came from eight players, including Palmer with six and Durant with five. Bertozzi and Craft had four, Tallman had three, Heasley had two, and Davis had one. Sellers set up her team 86 times with 34 assists.

“What’s really neat about this,” said King, “is that we won the regular season outright which gave us the privilege to host the tournament. This is the first time in six years that a team won outright in the regular season and won the tournament. Usually someone gets upset in the tournament, so we’re very fortunate.”

The easy part was getting to the championship, as Paden City easily overpowered the Lumberjills 25-7 and 25-14 to punch the ticket.

Scoring again was well-rounded for the team against Valley. Sellers served nine, followed by Durant with eight, Palmer with seven, and Amanda Heasley with six. Along the lines of the front row, Bertozzi scored 13 kills and Davis added seven. Both Tallman and Toman had four. Additionally, Sellers set her team up 47 times with 28 assists.

Defensively, five girls had at least three digs. Palmer had five, Durant had four, and Bertozzi, Tallman ,and Craft each had three.

After these wins, Paden City has now moved up to No. 5 in the most recent state polls for Class A volleyball, passing Greater Beckley Christian, a state qualifier a year ago.