The Paden City Wildcats volleyball team and coaching staff pose for a picture following their Class A regional championship victory against Ritchie County.

After beating Ritchie County on Wednesday night, November 6, to capture the sectional volleyball championship they went one step higher to win the Region 1 championship on Saturday. The Cats warmed up in the first match of the day by easily defeating Weirton Madonna 25-10, 25,18 and 25-4 before laying it all on the line one more time to knock off Ritchie County once again 25-23, 25-22, and 25-18.

Both teams secured a trip to Friday’s state tournament in Charleston at the Civic Center, but the regional win was something special the Wildcats had never experienced. Mallory Yeater and Hope Weber led the way for the Cats with Weber hammering down kills on the Rebels 15 times while adding 11 assists, three blocks, five digs, and two points. Yeater experienced another big night with 12 points, including three aces, 10 kills, 20 assists and four digs.

“It’s an amazing feeling,” said Weber. “We’ve been working hard to get to state, it’s been our goal all season. It’s crazy that we never made it beforeand we are the first team. We are like family, we’re all sisters.”

The Wildcats set set the school record for wins with the win and are now 34-4 heading into state tournament play. The old school record was held by the 2012 team that went 33-6 and was led by Coach Fred King.

“This is very exciting to be the first team to be able to do that,” Paden City Coach Jennifer Yeater said of clinching a berth in the state tournament. “It will be nice to represent the green and while. We set a goal in the summer and we worked very hard and it’s just one more hing we checked off our list. I’m proud of them. They worked hard and fought for every point. They just wanted it.”

The Wildcats and Rebels exchanged leads sis times in the first set before and were deadlocked at 14 before freshman Tanley McEldowney rattled off four straight points to lift the Cats to a 19-14 lead. Ritchie tied it at 23, but Brandis Dalrymple gave the Cats the lead with a big block for a point and the Cats won on the next serve.

Set two was all Paden City as they trailed 1-0 before taking control to get the win 25-22. The final set showed Paden City’s superiority as they came away with the 25-18 win. During the final set the Wildcats displayed to much of Weber and Yeater for the Rebels to handle. Weber had three kills in the final six points and Yeater added the final kill on a beautiful set by Maggi Still.

“We worked harder than we needed to in the second set,” added coach Yeater. “We needed to bring our energy level up a bit there but we got the job done.” “It was a team effort everybody stepped up when they needed to and got the job done. We had some big blocs from Brandis. Everybody just chipped in.” Maggi Still has really stepped up, come up with some big plays and she brings so much energy & effort to the floor. She’s been doing a great job. Her efforts and worth aren’t always show in the stats, ” added Yeater.

Cora Anderson with four points, seven digs; Madi Kline two points, a kill, two blocks and a dig, Maggi Still three kills two blocks and a dig, Brandis Dalrymple six blocks and four kills; Hallie McDonald a kill, McKenzie Thomsa four points and six digs and Tanley McEldowney eight points and 21 digs finished filling the stat sheets for the Wildcats.

In the win over Madonna Paden City got 30 points, two aces, nine kills, 22 assists and 11 digs. Weber had six points, 19 kills, 12 assists and eight digs. Anderson added seven points and 11 digs. Madison Kline got three points, three kills, and a dig. Still had four kills, two blocks and three assists. Dalyrmple was huge at the net with nine blocks, two kills, and a dig. McDonald added four nice kills and four assists, Thomas had a kill, eight digs and an assist. McEldowney finished with a kill and 14 digs. Isabella Beverlin got five service points and Loren Little added two points.

Wildcats claim Sectional Championship with win over Ritchie County

Paden City stands at 32-4 after winning the WV Region 1 Section 2 Volleyball Championship on Wednesday night on homestanding and number one seed Ritchie County in three straight sets. The Wildcats used the power of their two junior all-state candidates Mallory Yeater and HopeWeber to get the upper hand and frustrate the Rebels time and again with long volleys enroute to winning fairly easy 25-19, 25-20, and 25-19.

At times it seemed as if the Cats were touing with the Rebels as they pounded hard at the net, while using their serves to keep the Rebels at bay. The Wildcats big two played well but freshman McKenzie Thomas who has been steady most of the season stepped it up with a magnificent performance from the serve line to get the Cats the lead for good with eight straight serves at one point including two aces. She also went error free and returned 10 hard hit digs, and added two assists, while playing like a seasoned veteran.

The Wildcats other freshman Tanley McEldowney was also on track as she added 12 digs, six points and two aces. Weber had 16 kills. nine assists, nine digs, three points and an ace. Yeater added 20 assists, 12 kills, nine points with an ace, and 11 digs. Senior Cora Anderson got 10 dis and two aces, Madi Kline six points and two aces, Brandis Dalyrmple got three kills, four blocks and two digs, and Hallie McDonald came in with two kills, four assists and one dig. Maggi Still got two kills, two assists and one dig.

Paden City comes from two sets down to get win over Magnolia in Sectional Semi-Finals

Tuesday night November 5, at Ritchie County, Paden City took the old saying it’s never over till it’s over to another level. Falling behind two sets to none to Magnolia 13-25, and 22-25, the Wildcats rose up with a big roar and used pinpoint hitting and extra effort defense to manage a third set win 25-22 to give them a little hope and secure some momentum to carry into set four.

The Blue Eagles still looked like they would get one of the next two, but the Cats had other ideas and jumped all over the Eagles in route to an easy 25-11 fourth set that propelled them into the fifth and deciding set with a head of steam. With Hope Weber (This years OVAC player of the year) leading the charge and Mallory Yeater serving up some big points to start the set, the Wildcats made easy work of Magnolia to win set five 15-8 and move on to the sectional finals on Wednesday.

The Blue Eagles took set one pretty easy behind the heavy net play of Kendra Pilant the Eagles all-state player and some excellent play from sophomore Jaci Rhode, who had 13 kills, and three blocks in the set. However it was not to be their night as the Wildcats bounced back in fashion behind some big kills mostly coming down the line by Weber and expert cross hitting from Yeater to secure the win.

Pilant finished with six points including three aces, plus 38 kills and five blocks, while Lenieca Grimm offered up 51 assists, eight points, with three aces. Senior Zoey Jenkins gathered three digs and served up six points for Magnolia.

Kayna Anderson had 23 digs and four points, Liza Clegg got nine points, Alyssa Kocher added seven points and five digs.

Paden City had a monster night from Weber with 32 kills, three blocks, 24 assists, nine digs and eight points. Yeater turned in another of her usual fine performances as she hammered in 23 kills, 34 assists , 12 points and 11 digs. The Wildcats improved to 31-4 with the win heading into the sectional finals.

Wildcats start strong in Sectional play

Paden City finished the regular season with a 29-4 record and headed into the WV Class A Region 1 Section 2 Volleyball Tournament as the number two seed behind Ritchie County. The Tournament opened up on Monday November 4, with the Wildcats taking on one of the states top programs year-in-and-year-out, the Tyler Consolidated Silver Knights.

The Silver Knights had lost earlier in the year to the Wildcats on the Cats home floor and most expected this matchup to be a toss up. Paden City however showed they were up to the challenge again and took the Knights down winning 3-4 sets to move on to Tuesday night with another match against defending state champions Magnolia who defeated St. Marys and number one seed Ritchie County on Monday.

The Wildcats jumped out to a lead in set one against Tyler and then powered its way to a 25-21 victory behind some great volleys and hard hitting from Hope Weber, Brandis Dalrymple and Mallory Yeater. Set two also belonged to the Wildcats, as they continued to baffle the Knights resulting in a 25-19 win, which had them looking for the sweep.

However, the Silver Knights came from behind in a nip and tug third set to force set four with a 24-26 win. Paden City controlled the tempo in the final set eventually winning in easy fashion 25-14. For the Wildcats, Yeater played possessed as she stuffed the stat book with 30 kills, 33 assists, 20 digs, 13 points, including an ace, while also adding a block.

Weber also turned in a great performance with 29 kills, 26 assists, 15 digs, and 12 points, including two aces. Freshman Tanley McEldowney played error free ball as she covered the back row consistently with 39 digs while also serving up 10 points, including three aces. Brandis Dalrymple added five kills, four blocks and two digs. Cora Anderson pitched in with eight points and 14 digs.

Madi Kline aided the Wildcats win by securing three points, two digs, two kills and a block. McKenzie Thomas added four points, 15 digs, one kill and one assist. Maggie Still had two kills, two assists and one dig, while Hallie McDonald got four assists, Loren Little two points and Isabella Beverlin two points.