Charleston – Shady Spring and Philip Barbour have been on a collision course this year for the Class AA state volleyball championship crown.
After all, both teams returned the bulk of very talented rosters that saw the Tigers defeat the Colts in the final match last year for their first title since 2003.
What seemed to be the inevitable turned into reality Saturday inside the Charleston Coliseum and Convention Center.
Unfortunately for Shady Spring, Philip Barbour found a way to get it done after losing to the Tigers in the postseason each of the last two years.
In a thrilling five-set match, Philip Barbour knocked off the defending state champion Tigers, 3-2.
“I have played on this court for four years and this has never been the outcome. This year, this was my only option. It had to be this outcome,” senior middle-hitter, Alyssa Hill said. “They took us out in the semis my sophomore year and in the championship last year, but not this year.”
The desire to put the state tournament frustration behind her showed early and often from Hill who helped her team take an early 1-0 lead in the best-of-five match.
Tied at 11-11, Hill recorded three kills in a 4-0 run to separate the match. Shady battled back to lead briefly at 19-18, but the Colts quickly ran off three straight points and would not trail again in a 25-23 win.
Hill felt her team needed a quick start Saturday if it was going to be successful.
“They needed someone behind them telling them that they could get it done. Obviously they could do it, they just needed to here that,” Hill said.
“Alyssa has always been like that, even when she was a freshman. She turns to her teammates and pumps them up, whether she is struggling or not,” Philip Barbour head coach Heather Halfin said. “She knows how to get them up.” She will be missed next year. Volleyball is a lot of momentum and getting up. If you can get your team up and stay up, then you usually win.”
Shady Spring by no means was going to go away quietly and the defending champs bounced back with a 25-22 win in another tight battle in set two.
Tied at 20-20, two straight kills from Meg Williams, an ace from Kelsie Dangerfield and a back row bomb from Chloe Thompson gave Shady a 24-20 lead.
A kill from Williams closed out a 25-22 win.
However, the up and down day for Shady continued in set three where the Tigers never led in a 25-21 setback.
“It was a tough day. I think we let our emotion take over a little bit today. Philip Barbour played a great game and they are a great team. It is a testament to hard work and dedication to your craft,” Shady Spring head coach Kelly Williams said. “I think we gave it everything we had. Maybe we gave up a little to easy. I don’t think we came in here cocky at all, but I think we let our emotion take over when we got down and sometimes its hard to come back from that.”
The Tigers trailed in the first half of set four and looked to be on the brink of elimination before they got off the mat swinging.
A kill and three aces from Peydon Smith sparked a 6-0 run that led to a strong 25-19 win to tie the match.
“We dug ourselves a whole a couple of times and sometimes we dug ourselves out and sometimes we didn’t. You can’t do that in a championship game and my girls know that,” Williams said. “They gave it one heckuva a try and I am super proud of them. If you are going to go down in a state championship game, you want to go to five sets.”
The final set was a race to 15 points and Philip Barbour again started fast.
“I just told them that they had to play hard for 15 points. It’s a much better bus ride home when you have that championship trophy instead of a runner-up trophy. Last year I feel like we got tired and we weren’t in as good of shape, so we conditioned hard this year for this exact moment,” Halfin said. “I think we were in much better condition for this and mentally too. They have been in some of these tight spots before and we were a little bit more ready for that.”
A block and a kill from Hill along with a blast from Emily Dennison built a quick 4-1 lead.
“We had to come out swinging. We couldn’t tip. We had to go at them,” Hill said about the strategy in the final set.
The Colts held a three-point advantage for most of the match, but down 14-11, Shady made a move to stave off defeat.
A kill and a block from Williams trimmed the lead to one, but a a blast from Dennison erased two years of frustration at the hands of the Tigers.
“That is a lot more hustle than we have seen over the last couple years,” Halfin said about her team’s effort. “That is another reason we have tried to be in shape, was to prepare for games like that. We could lay it out on the ground and get right back up and still be ready to go.”
The state championship title was the first for Philip Barbour since winning three in a row from 2015-17.
