When things become easy or trendy in sports, it can lead to a tendency to take them for granted.
A season like the one Woodrow Wilson had last fall on the volleyball court can go a long way to avoiding that.
The Flying Eagles were loaded with seniors who already had three years of state tournament experience to their collective name. They marched through the regular season and a return to the state tournament came as expected.
But those seniors, two of them first-team all-staters, graduated, leaving the team a little down on experience and chemistry. That has required a lot of work and a lot of learning as the team tried to find the right combination.
It wasn’t easy, but the Flying Eagles earned yet another state tournament berth. In the new Class AAAA South Region, Woodrow was the third seed in the lower bracket and emerged with two victories to earn one of the region’s four state qualifying positions.
The Flying Eagles will be the No. 6 seed and will take on No. 3 Cabell Midland on the first day of the state volleyball tournament Tuesday at the Charleston Coliseum and Convention Center. The game will start 30 minutes after the 1:30 p.m. matchup between No. 2 Morgantown and No. 7 Parkersburg South.
The winners of those games will meet in the semifinals at about 8 p.m.
Woodrow (29-14-7) navigated an inconsistent season until regional time. It started with a straight-sets win over Huntington, then a perhaps unexpected home game against Parkersburg South, which as the seven-seed had upset No. 2 George Washington. It was a battle, but the Flying Eagles beat the Patriots 3-1 to lock up their sixth consecutive state tournament.
No one is taking it for granted.
“They’re definitely fighting for it,” Woodrow Wilson coach Bre Rhodes said. “In years past, we’ve had a little bit of an easier road. This is a battle, and you know, that makes these wins a little bit sweeter.”
“I feel like in the past years, we almost knew (they would make it to states), but this year, I don’t know. I don’t know what we all thought about it,” said senior Anya Hasan. “I don’t think everyone was confident that we would make it.”
But they persevered and are ending the season where they want to be.
Hasan has been a big part of it. The outside hitter/middle blocker has 303 kills, 38 blocks and 156 digs. Mollie Smith is building off a nice freshman season. She leads the team with 383 kills and 56 blocks. Junior Reagan Rist has 227 kills and 28 blocks.
Senior libero Londen Baker has 652 serve receptions, 593 digs and 48 aces. Senior Makayla Adkins has served up 70 aces and has 867 assists and 267 digs. Sophomore Kyndra Bailey is second with 64 aces and has 246 digs and 348 serve receives.
Junior Kaelyn Meadows has 248 serve receives, 195 digs and 40 aces. Freshmen Addie Ellis (93 kills, 41 blocks) and Kami Cogar (80 kills, 33 aces, 149 digs, 119 assists) have provided depth for the Flying Eagles, ranked eighth in the last coaches poll of the regular season.
Cabell Midland, meanwhile, is third in the state and goes in with a 44-5-1 record. The Knights have lost only 18 sets on the year, only one during their current 18-game winning streak.
Junior Katie Lawson leads the Knights with 320 kills and 99 blocks. Lyla Johnson (191 kills), Lucy Johnson (176 kills, 70 blocks), Chloe Anderson (166 kills), Madelyn Cooke (163 kills), Madison Mount (146 kills) and Jillian Yost (1,025 assists, 109 kills, 306 digs) have all been big.
Carley Brewster (509 digs), Payton Bowyer (295 digs) and Jaycee Bowen (274 digs) have been big on defense.
Woodrow and Cabell Midland did not play in the regular season.
