The River High School volleyball team has grown leaps and bounds over the past several weeks, winning its first two matches in a row against Linsly and then fighting off elimination Oct. 12 at R.L. Potts Gymnasium. They were down 12-3 against Valley and stormed back to win.

The match with Magnolia could be what the doctor ordered. In their first meeting the Eagles put the Lady Pilots away quite easily, but this time the Sarah Smith-led Pilots hung right in there to the end, losing 21-25, 27-29, and 16-25.

Alexa Jo Hanna led the Lady Blue with a game-high 18 points, including three service aces, while Jordan Babe added 16 points, including four perfect serves.

MHS setter Padyn Ludewig added 15 points, Kelsi Heasley netted 11, and the duo of Annie Potts and Lacey Jackson each drilled eight points.

Babe smacked 10 spikes, landing four, while Heasley and Hanna each drilled nine, with seven finding the floor safely. Jackson and Abby Harlan each had eight spikes, but only four landed.

For the home-standing Lady Pilots Annie Turner had a team-high 13 points, while Rachel Biesel netted 12.

The hot-hitting Brittany Harrigan contributed nine points, including an ace. Brianne McCune followed with seven points, one ace, eight kills, and five blocked shots.

Kelsey Caretti added six points, including a service ace, while Telah Ewers and Jo Beth Haslam added five and four points, respectively. Haslam added a game-high 12 kills and five blocked Eagle shots.

The Blue Eagles will travel to Wheeling Park at 5 p.m. on Oct. 15 and host John Marshall Oct. 20 before facing the Bruins at Brooke on Oct. 22, and ending the regular season at home against Paden City and Parkersburg Catholic on Oct. 27.

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The Lady Pilots were down 3-12 in the fifth and deciding set before rattling off 12 straight points to win the match. The Pilots won the first set, 25-22; lost set two 25-27; won the third set, 25-23; lost the fourth set, 14-25; before winning the fifth set 15-12.

The Lady Pilots scored the 12 points, while Harrigan was serving. Harrigan tallied a game-high 23 points, including three service aces, two digs, and added one assist. Turner paced the Red-Hot Pilots with 17 assists and scored 20 points, including two service aces. She also added three digs and three kills. Caretti and McCune tallied 14 and 13 points, respectively, while Lindsay Hendershot, Stephanie Murdock, and Biesel teamed for 17 points. Biesel paced River with a game-high 10 kills, while McCune drilled eight.

Leah Morris paced the ‘Jills with 25 points, including two service aces. She also added 19 spikes, one block, and had four digs. Kristin Wolfe and Carla Mason combined for 36 points, six aces, eight sets, 13 spikes, two blocks, and four digs. Rachel Ice and Tiffany Hayes each tallied 17 points. Ice added 52 sets, two spikes, and nine digs, while Hayes added five service aces, nine sets, 16 spikes, and had three digs. Ashley Staley scored 13 points, including a pair of service aces. She had 20 sets, one spike, and added three digs.

It was the Lumberjills Senior Night where they acknowledged Ice and Wolfe. “We have been in a slump of late and I changed our offense,” said Valley Head Coach Gary Partridge. “The girls are starting to get comfortable with it and I expect to see results before Sectional and the Mason-Dixon Conference Tournaments.

PCHS made the OVAC tournament and takes

on Trinity Oct. 17 at Steubenville High

at 9 a.m.