Gallery by Tina Laney
New Richmond – Wyoming East had fielded state tournament teams in every sport it offers except volleyball.
On their 27th try the Lady Warriors held up their end of the bargain.
Hosting Liberty in the Class AA Region 3 co-final, East overcame sizable deficits before ultimately cruising to a 3-0 sweep over the Raiders Wednesday evening in New Richmond.
The victory clinches the first regional championship in program history as well as its first state tournament berth.
After notching sectional titles over the last two years, a trip to Charleston became next hurdle for East. Dropping out of a region that featured the second and third-ranked teams (Shady Spring and Herbert Hoover) in Class AAA this season presented the Lady Warriors with a more favorable path.
“It’s an amazing feeling for the girls,” East head coach Tabitha Lusk said. “My excitement isn’t for me, it’s for them. These girls have put in hours and hours and hours of work in the offseason and during season, and it’s finally paid off! They finally get to reap those benefits. We were so close in the last couple years, but the region was just, it was hard. And it was it was hard mentally, because they knew that’s who they were going to face, no matter how well they did in the regular season, that was who we were going to face. So this year, going into it knowing that the matchups were different, knowing that the playing field was a little more level, and that the goal was actually attainable, and it made all the difference in the world.”
The victory didn’t come with ease despite the final tally.
East found itself in a 11-5 deficit in the first set and an 18-11 hole in the second before closing strong.
The Lady Warriors worked their way out of the first deficit to tie the set at 15 before taking a commanding advantage at 20-15. A pair of aces closed the set out, securing a 25-16 victory for the hosts.
The second set saw the visitors break a 7-7 tie with an 11-4 run that put them in position to knots the match up. But East again rallied.
“We have worked all season long on mental toughness, not getting stuck in our head, not really focusing on the sport and just trying to continue to play our game,” Lusk said. “So when we get down like that, these girls know it doesn’t matter. At the end of the day, we got to keep playing, and they pushed on, and it’s exactly what we practice.”
A late and lengthy surge saw East tie the set at 22, yield the lead at 23-22 and finish with the final three points to claim a 25-23 victory.
During the rally a 10-minute delay took place as officials tried to sort out a rotation issue. It did nothing to slow East.
For Liberty it was the same nightmare it lived a week ago against James Monroe in the sectional championship. After leading in the second set of that match the Raiders yielded a lengthy run and came up just short.
Unfortunately for the visitors that wasn’t the only similarity. Much like that third set a week ago, the Raiders ran out of gas, never leading and failing to ever make East uncomfortable. The Lady Warriors took an 8-1 lead and gradually expanded that advantage en route a 25-12 victory, capping the sweep.
“When the officials were deciding what happened and what didn’t happen, nobody was on the same page,” Liberty head coach Denise Arline said. “So instead of them focusing out there, they were focused over here. And that’s what happened with that.”
“After that second set, we got the girls in the huddle and we told them, ‘Do not let up!'” Lusk said. “You know, we got one more to get one more to go. Don’t let up. Push on. Push harder than you have, and get the job done. But it was too close, and I didn’t like it.”
For East there was an emphasis on not taking Liberty lightly. Despite sweeping the Raiders in the two matches they played this season, the Lady Warriors knew the pitfalls were in place and they wanted to avoid them.
“We went into practice the end of last week, beginning of this week, knowing that this was going to be a battle,” Lusk said. “Liberty is a talented team. They’ve got talented players, and they wanted this just as bad as we did. So we went in not really thinking about the fact that we had beat them previously in the season. It was, it was a new game, it was a new night and a fresh slate. So that was our mentality going in – play them like we’ve never played them before.”
The state tournament will begin Nov. 12 at the Charleston Coliseum and Convention Center.
