The Magnolia Blue Eagles defeated Williamstown and Paden City Oct. 30 at Paden City’s Bob Burton Gymnasium to finish the regular season.

In the first match of the Tri, Paden City humbled Williamstown 25-14 to win the first set. But, the Yellowjackets fought back to win the second 16-25. In the tie-breaker, the Lady Wildcats strutted their stuff and beat the ‘Jackets 25-12 to win the match.

Leading the way for Paden City was Amanda Sellers with 31 of her 58 sets finding the floor for points. Plus, she scored four points. Alli Bertozzi racked up six points, but her 11 kills and six digs kept the ‘Jackets at bay. Amanda Tallman added four kills and five digs.

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In the second match of the Tri, Magnolia lost soundly to Williamstown 9-25, but came back to win set two 25-23 and set three 25-22.

Annie Potts led the Eagles with nine points, while Bree Carr and Kelsi Heasley added seven and five points, respectively. Tincy Haught added three points and pounded seven kills.

In the finale, the Lady Eagles went up against county rival Paden City. The match went back and forth throughout, but in the end it was Class A Paden City defeating Class AA power Magnolia, 25-22, in set one.

In the second set, the ‘Cats scored the opening point, but the Eagles’ Lindsay Riggs made a block on Bertozzi that fell for an Eagle point. Bertozzi drilled a Sellers set for a kill and Shauna Durant added an ace, while her teammates came together to score a couple volleys to race out to a 5-1 lead.

Haught scored a kill to break the scoring drought, and Suzanne Snyder helped on her serves to climb to 5-4. Bertozzi blocked an Eagle spike for the Wildcats. But, with Heasley serving, Magnolia scored five straight points, including four straight scoring aces to take the lead at 10-6.

Paden City scored the next volley and Sellers added an ace to narrow the gap. Tallman blasted a kill, while Kim Davis blocked an Eagle spike that found its mark to knot the game at 10.

The score see-sawed back and forth until it was knotted again at 20-20. During this time, Bertozzi and Davis each added a pair of kills for the Wildcats, while Haught added a pair of blocks that found the floor for points.

Davis gave the ‘Cats the lead at 21-20 with a kill, but Lyn Miller and Padyn Ludewig gave the Eagles the advantage back. However, Davis stepped up and knotted the set again on a towering kill at 23.

Magnolia stepped up and won the serve for a 24-23 lead, and Abby Harlan put on the finishing touches with a service ace for the win.

In the rubber match, the Wildcats, led by a Bertozzi kill and an Amber Palmer dink, raced out to a 3-0 lead. But a Haught kill put the Eagles on the board. Bertozzi scored two kills, while Tallman added a dig and a dink to give the ‘Cats the upper edge at 7-4.

However, Carr landed a dink, while Riggs and Harlan drilled kills to give the Eagles a four-point lead. Riggs added two more kills, while Harlan added one kill to double up on Paden City, 14-7.

Davis stopped the bleeding with a kill of her own, but Harlan retaliated with a kill of her own. Paden City front line player Amy Toman scored a kill and Dominique Craft added an ace to pull the ‘Cats to within six points.

Carr scored the next two points for the Eagles to widen the Eagle advantage to 19-10. Bertozzi blasted two Sellers’ sets for kills, while Toman decked the Eagles with one of her own.

But, a Riggs block and a Carr ace had the Eagles to within a point of the game. However, a bad Magnolia serve and a Tallman kill had the ‘Cats ready to make a comeback. But the Eagles played inspired volleyball and used a long volley capped off with a net infraction to gain the match, two games to one.