Derrick Webb, Staff Writer
Southern Ohio Sports Authority is presented by OhioHealth.
ATHENS — This year’s Ohio Valley Conference volleyball title didn’t belong to just one team.
CREDIT: Derrick Webb/SOSA
Instead, Gallia Academy and Fairland share the crown, thanks to the Dragons’ five-set win over the Blue Angels back on Oct. 11.
So when the two met again in a Division II district semifinal on Monday, a close game was expected.
But Gallia had other plans.
In the rubber match, the Blue Angels left no doubt as to who deserved to advance with a dominant 25-8, 25-23, 25-15 victory.
“All week, we’ve been practicing and we’ve put all this work on,” Gallia’s Regan Wilcoxon said. “We’ve watched film and we’ve even scrimmaged against some really good teams. Our game plan was to keep it away from the libero, go for the line, hit our shots and just be the team we knew we could be.”
While Gallia used a mix of hitters Callie Wilson, Emma Hammons and Jalyn Short to pierce Fairland’s defense early, the Blue Angels continuously wreaked havoc at the service line.
Led by Wilcoxon, Gallia was relentless in dinking and dunking its way to multiple aces.
“Our assistant coach is always there with her clipboard and she’s a key part in telling us where to go [with the serve],” Wilcoxon said. “We try to keep it away from the other team’s best serve receiver and make other people pass. It mixes things up.”
The first set, in short, was never close.
PHOTOS: Images from Gallia Academy’s win over Fairland
Wilson stepped to the service line and logged three aces in her first four tries, putting Gallia up 4-0.
That 4-0 advantage swelled to 14-3 after a pair of Fairland hitting errors, back-to-back kills from Short made it a 21-3 tally and the Blue Angels ran away with a 25-8 victory.
While the second was a much closer game, Gallia took the momentum they had grabbed in the first and rode it.
Short and Emmons helped the Blue Angels build a 10-6 advantage before Wilson made it a 14-8 edge with a thunderous kill. Fairland pieced together a 5-0 run midway through to cut the deficit to 16-14 and later forced a 20-20 tie with an ace from Kalei Ngumire.
But with the score tied 23-23, Emmons blocked a kill attempt at the net and then came up with a kill of her own to put Gallia ahead 2-0 with a 25-23 victory.
“Once we get excited, we’re just able to build off one another,” Wilcoxon said. “It’s really hard to stop us once that happens. We’re just so ready for Saturday and we’re going to bring the best we’ve got.”
The Blue Angels took a 6-2 lead in the third behind the play of Wilcoxon and Hammons, which grew to going ahead 15-8.
While Emmons, Wilcoxon and Short provided the fireworks offensively, Wilson, Jenna Harrison, Bella Barnette, Madison Ratliff and Courtney Corvin all made contributions defensively.
Together, they put away a match-clinching 25-15 win.
“It’s great. We’ve got a good libero, a good defense and we get good sets from a great setter,” Wilson said. “Our job as hitters is to put it down and we do our best to do that.”
While Fairland’s season comes to an end, Gallia advances to a Division II district final against Sheridan, who advanced with a sweep of Waverly. That matchup will take place at 2 p.m., Saturday at Southeastern High School.
“Our coach was just talking to us about how we’re one of the teams that has made it the furthest in our program’s history,” Wilson said. “We’re just really excited to see what we can do.”
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