St. Mary’s volleyball hopes to make a splash at the state tournament | News, sports, jobs

The St. Marys volleyball team celebrates advancing to the W.Va. Class A state tournament after defeating Trinity. (Courtesy photo)

PARKERSBURG — The Class A state volleyball tournament will crown a new champion early Tuesday afternoon at West Virginia State University’s Walker Convocation Center.

East Hardy, led by first-team all-state honorees Morganne and Chloe Miller, who are not related, is at the top.

Head coach Marsha Hahn’s Cougars open the game as the team to beat, following the opening quarterfinal showdown between No. 4 Pendleton County and No. 5 Magnolia at 8:30 a.m. Monday against No. 8 St. Marys compete.

The quarterfinals continue Monday at 1:30 p.m. with No. 7 River View taking on No. 2 Greenbrier West, followed by No. 6 Sherman looking to knock off No. 3 Wirt County, the Women’s Player of the Year Little Kanawha Conference, Addie, led by Stephens.

“We are definitely looking forward to the opportunity to play in the tournament” admitted Wirt County head coach Katie Frazier. “We are a young team that at times has four girls on the floor who had no high school experience before this year.

“This team has done a great job of sticking together throughout the season regardless of outside factors. They really came together to be as prepared as possible for Monday.”

Fourth-year St. Marys head coach Stephanie Corathers and her Blue Devils reached state for the first time ever.

It would take a novel to get through the ups and downs of the Pleasants County program’s journey to Charleston, only to find out that their final destination was W.Va. State was.

“I need this Trinity team. This is the team I need to get on the bus.” admitted coach Corathers, who said her Blue Devils continued practicing but had Thanksgiving off.

“This is the first time we have to go. It still seems surreal at this point just because we’ve been on a roller coaster ride.”

Of all the sports, volleyball is where the team aspect of psychology comes into play.

“I wouldn’t underestimate her. I definitely wouldn’t underestimate her,” Coach Coarthers admitted. “We watch film and learn, but it’s completely different than actually seeing them play live. They are excited about the experience. I still feel like it’s surreal. I don’t know what to expect, but we probably played really well against Magnolia in the last two weeks of our season and they’re a good team.

“We are excited. When the girls who played Trinity come along, don’t underestimate St. Mary’s, and then there’s the fact that it took four years to build this program. We’ve never been on the radar. A lot of people told us it was all about basketball and football, but here we are. I think we surprised a lot of people.”

The Blue Devils, led by first-team all-state selection Callie Powell, could face Magnolia in the semifinals.

Pam Chapman began her fourth decade in New Martinsville this fall, but is now in her second term as the Blue Eagles’ first-year head coach.

“I decided to come back and called Roger Clegg, who is now my assistant, and he said sure. We spoke on the phone. It would be great to get the team back together,” said Chapman, whose Blue Eagles are led by second-team all-state honoree Sienna McKeever.

The MHS head coach told the team “I worked really, really hard all season” and this early she wasn’t sure if they could be a state tournament squad, but “Probably towards the end of the season I told coach Clegg we had a chance.”

Coach Chapman knows that anything is possible in the state volleyball tournament.

“I knew the potential was there, but having some of those young kids there, I wasn’t sure how those young kids were going to be able to take advantage of it.” Chapman said.

“It’s just the speed of the game from middle school onwards. They did a really good job, worked hard, honed all their skills and just kept getting better.”

Magnolia and Pendleton County meet for the first time.

“We have a film about it” Chapman added. “We were just looking and trying to come up with a plan. Sometimes the best laid plans don’t always work out because the dynamics can change in a matter of seconds and quickly slip away. We’ll do our best and see what happens.”

Coach Chapman also said it felt like they hadn’t played for a month, but actually beat Madonna in the regional co-final on November 5th.

“We’re going down on Sunday.” added Coach Coarthers, who is interested in seeing the look and feel of the state tournament since it is not being held in Charleston and the Yellow Jackets have requested mugshots of the players for the jumbotron. “I think that’s pretty cool. Playing on this system just seems brighter. They take over the announcement and show the content on the big screen.

“Because we’re waiting for a pep rally bus to go after Thanksgiving, but I want to say that the key is that our mental performance is as good as our physical performance. The average height of our entire team is 5-4, 5-5, so if you don’t have one. I have a girl who is 5-7 years old and that’s it. Their skills have to be there because we don’t give the ball to everyone.”

Contact Jay Bennett at [email protected]