Though they had a very good run, the Lady Wildcat volleyball team at Paden City High School ended their season on Saturday at the Region I Regional tournament at Tyler Consolidated.

Poised to play spoiler and play for the championship, the ‘Cats wound up falling to Magnolia in the first round of Regional play.

“They are a very good team,” said Paden City head coach Fred King of the Lady Eagles.

“There is no doubt about that. They simply had more fire power than we had that day. Their experience paid off on the court for them.”

The Lady ‘Cats put forth a valiant effort in the Regional, but the experienced Magnolia squad proved to be too much, defeating Paden City in three games, 25-15, 25-13 and 25-19.

Senior Logan Cosper led the Green and White in service points with 11. She had four kids, 86 sets and 20 assists in the game. Taylor Cosper served 11 points, one ace, and had four digs; Charkawi, 10 points, 14 digs, one kill; Parsons, six points, four digs, 10 kills; Fox, six points, four digs, one kill; Graeson, three points, five digs, two kills; Pierce, two kills; and Hizer, four kills.

“It was very disappointing to lose, but assistant coach Jeff Bowers and I couldn’t have asked our kids to do any more than they did. They stepped up and played well all year, we just weren’t able to pull this last one out.”

Paden City did not get to the Regional by mistake, they earned their berth at the tournament by taking runner-up accolades at the Section II tournament held last week at Blacksville. In their first game against Clay-Battelle, the ‘Cats bested the Lady Cee Bee’s 25-12, 18-25, 25-21 and 25-13.

Senior Lynnsie Parsons led the way for the ‘Cats with 32 kills over the net. Parsons also added 11 points to the scoreboard (one ace), and had seven digs.

Fellow senior, Logan Cosper, served up 29 points for the Green and White, had six digs, two kills, set the ball 120 times in the contest and was credited with 55 assists. Taylor Cosper served 26 points, four aes and had 15 digs; Josie Fox added 10 points, one ace and had nine digs; Myah Charkawi, nine points, 12 digs and two kills; Graeson Baker, eight points, one ace, eight digs and five kills; Megan Pierce, one block and nine kills; Haley Hizer had two blocks, one dig and five kills.

For the Sectional Championship on Oct. 31 at Clay Battelle, the ‘Cats faced off with the Tyler Consolidated Lady Knights, falling in three games: 25-4, 25-6 and 25-16, and earning the opportunity to play in the Regional.

In the game with Tyler, Charkawi led the team with 11 points, one ace and had six digs.

Taylor Cosper scored four points and had three digs; Haley Hizer scored four points and had one dig; Parsons, three points, four digs, and four kills; Fox, three points, five digs; Baker, one point, seven digs and three kills; Pierce, one block, five digs and six kills; Cydney Blatt, one kill; and Logan Cosper set the ball 61 sets and had 15 assists.

“We have a great group of girls,” coach King said. “They’ve worked very hard and their commitment level has been there all year long.”

“We’ve also had great support from our fans and the community. They came out and supported us and that means a lot to a team. We certainly appreciate them.”

“We did the best we could with a very young team and our two seniors, Lynnsie Parsons and Logan Cosper. We won 29 games and made it to the Regional tournament, I’d call that a good year.”

“We’re very proud of the kids, they gave it all they had.”

The Lady Wildcats put together a very respectable 29-13, defeating some tough teams along the way and pocketing their seventh Mason Dixon Conference Championship. They were runners-up in their Sectional and represented their school, community and Section very well at the Regional tournament.

It was indeed a good year for the Lady Wildcats.