Wheelersburg junior Ella Chamberlin collected her 1,000th career assist in the Pirates’ Southern Ohio Conference Division III volleyball match against South Webster on Tuesday night at Wheelersburg High School.

Ed Litteral | Daily Times

WHEELERSBURG — The Wheelersburg Pirates had the home court, had an experience level, and had the determination to reach down and fight back on Tuesday night.

As a result, the Pirates are right where they want to be following the opening round-robin of first-year Southern Ohio Conference Division III volleyball.

Trailing two sets to one to undefeated and stronghold South Webster, Wheelersburg ran roughshod on the Jeeps in the fourth set, and then simply dominated start-to-finish in the decisive fifth game —all resulting in a 25-20, 22-25, 16-25, 25-17 and 15-4 victory.

Dating back to the Jeeps’ 2021 Division IV regional championship run, the Jeeps had won five out of six against the Pirates —including last season’s sweep.

But these Jeeps were significantly impacted by a pair of graduation losses in Bella Claxon and Skylar Zimmerman, while Wheelersburg returned its entire roster —spearheaded by sole senior middle blocker Gracie Perkins.

In a match in which the sizable crowd in Pirate Country conceived a four-set or likely five-set affair, the Pirates bounced back from a resounding third-set defeat —by outscoring the Jeeps 20-12 over the final 32 fourth-set points.

That onslaught only continued in the fifth —as the only Jeep points were a Pirate hitting error that made it 2-1, a Makayla Raynard kill that made it 11-2, a Mia Crum kill that made it 12-3, and another Raynard kill that made it 14-4.

As the fifth set is played to 15, it was the only set in which there were no lead changes.

With the win, the Pirates raised their Jolly Roger record to 9-2, while the Jeeps fell for the first time in a dozen matches.

Both teams entered Tuesday’s tilt 5-0 in the SOC III —as this is the first volleyball season in which the SOC is split into three divisions.

There are only 10 league bouts now compared to 16 before —so it’s much more sprint now than it used to be a marathon.

Either way, first-year Wheelersburg coach Kelsey Glockner said the win was “huge” for her band of Pirates —in more ways than one.

South Webster was part of the final four former SOC II championships —while Wheelersburg split with the Jeeps in 2020 and 2022.

“This win means everything. We didn’t beat South Webster last year, and the girls’ first goal is to win the SOC. And they know to do that, we have to go through South Webster. Then coming in to it today, with them (Jeeps) being undefeated and both of us being undefeated in the league, we knew how big of a game it was,” said Glockner. “It means everything for us to get off on the right foot and try to reach that first goal that the girls have set for themselves.”

And indeed, the Pirates played an experience card — around the six-foot and one-inch Perkins in the middle.

“One of the not problems but rather one of the situations we’re placed in this year is that yes we have our whole team back, but it’s still a very young core. The ability is there, we’re fully capable, but this is where we have to grow. We’ve got to decide we can do it and choose to do it. They’ve really been buying into that,” said Glockner. “Being able to see it come full circle tonight, I am hoping it can be a turning point for them to understand that even though we don’t have full experience and we still are youthful, how capable we are of winning big matches.”

Perkins posted 14 kills, including for the first fifth-set point —and a thunderous one which made it 7-1 following three consecutive aces by junior setter Ella Chamberlin.

But it was Chamberlin, who set for her 1,000th career assist in the second set with Wheelersburg leading 15-14, setting to the likes of sophomore Alyssa Mullins and junior Grace Woodward.

Mullins made the kill for Chamberlin’s milestone, as her fifth-set kills made it 8-1 and 12-2.

Wheelersburg sophomore hitter Alyssa Mullins (21)

Ed Litteral | Daily Times

She led all attackers with a match-high 18 kills, while Woodward went on a tear late —following with 16 kills including the one which made it match point.

“Mullins was out there with Perk (Perkins) and that was one of our adjustments. I told Perk to go hard and we’re going to give the ball to Alyssa (Mullins) right now. Alyssa was on her game tonight. She wanted the ball and she got it done. She didn’t make a lot of errors and she was all in. It was crucial,” said Glockner. “Then moving through these last few sets, when we talk about the pins working, that’s when (Grace) Woodward was back in the front row and she was able to get it done for us. She decided out there that we weren’t losing. She told me that. Ella did a great job of getting those three the balls and listening to the things we were telling her to do within the offense. Ella did really well with her decisions tonight to put us in a position to win. When Ella went back there and served the way that she did in that fifth set, she just added another level to it. To be able to do that for us tonight was huge, on top of her getting her 1,000th assist. What a night for her.”

Wheelersburg junior Ella Chamberlin collected her 1,000th career assist in the Pirates’ Southern Ohio Conference Division III volleyball match against South Webster on Tuesday night at Wheelersburg High School.

Paul Boggs | Daily Times

An attack error ended it with Wheelersburg winning 15-4.

“That fifth set was unbelievable. But I told them that this set is a sprint now. When we have gotten ourselves in this position this season, I told them just like the first set of tonight, sometimes those first 15 points are when we’re the most magical. Sometimes we when come up ready to play, that’s when we look our best,” said Glockner. “I said to let’s make the magic right now, let’s go do it and we’re not letting them back in. Go pull away and take it. They bought into it and they wanted to win and defend our house.”

Chamberlin set for 51 assists, served up five aces, and added 13 digs —contributing to the defensive effort of junior libero Mylee Gleim (match-high 28 digs), Woodward (19 digs) and Mullins (17 digs).

The Pirates first had to erase that 2-1 deficit, as the Jeeps pulled away from a 17-17 second-set tie — the last of seven in that game which also included four lead changes.

In the third set, there were two lead changes and three ties —at 1-1, 5-5 and 6-6.

It was all Jeeps in the third from there, as senior Lauren Kaltenbach served up three consecutive of her four aces.

The third-set Jeep lead extended to 20-9 and 21-10, before a Raynard kill ended it at 25-16.

But once Wheelersburg erased a 5-3 fourth-set deficit with five straight points, it was all Pirates pulling away from there.

“My big talk before the fourth set was choosing to do it. That we were capable and we have already shown we can do it, but we had to choose to do it again. That meant digging deep on defense, digging deep in communication, that meant figuring it out. One of the things we talk about is turning the lights on when it gets dark. And not waiting for somebody else to turn them on. Then I just drove it home that sometimes everybody gets caught up in it not being a 3-0 win or something along those lines. But the match can always go five,” said Glockner. “It doesn’t matter if we lose the first two games and win the next three. I just got them to buy into digging it out again, no matter what was going on. I told them to find some killer in them. Truthfully, that’s what I told them.”

Longtime SWHS coach Darcee Claxon said simply her Jeeps “just didn’t rise to the occasion.”

“That’s the bottom line. We came out in the fourth set way too casual. I told them that it’s okay to be relaxed, but you have to have a focus and a discipline about you and we didn’t have that. I knew as that fourth set progressed, we were going to be in trouble if we could not figure it out. Wheelersburg outplayed us in every facet. There have been issues with us offensively in not being super aggressive. All of things were exploited tonight. Our back row is usually spot on, but we really struggled. I think that comes back to playing tight and some of these girls are not used to being in this situation,” said Claxon. “We weren’t passing in system, and even when we were passing in system, we didn’t hit the ball. I really think we hit the ball hard one time. We hit roll shot after roll shot to the sixth zone — the one place where you don’t want to hit because that’s where the defender is sitting. Those are things we work on every single day in practice and they played scared. This is the result of that.”

South Webster senior hitter Brea Shupert (3)

Ed Litteral | Daily Times

The senior hitter Raynard racked up 15 kills for South Webster, followed by fellow senior and middle blocker Crum with 13 — and other senior hitter Brea Shupert with 11.

Crum had five blocks —four of which were solo.

South Webster senior middle hitter Mia Crum (9)

Ed Litteral | Daily Times

Crum battled Perkins all night at the net, of which Perkins picked up the attack as the match moved along into sets four and five.

“Early on, from what we had from our scouting of them, we had some ways in mind on how to score. And it was working, but we knew it was going to take Gracie (Perkins) out of the game a little bit. But she bought into the selflessness of that, and we were able to win those early points because of that. Then I told her volleyball is a game of adjustments and she’s going to come back. And these last two sets, here she came alive again. Again, it’s a game of adjustments. We knew they were going to gun for her, they knew they had to limit Gracie like we knew we had to limit (Mia) Crum. That’s how it works,” said Glockner. “So I said to her keep being selfless, it’s going to pay off. Those last two sets, there she was, and they had to worry about everybody because of what we did in the earlier games. Be selfless, it opens back up.”

Claxon said self-inflicted mistakes cost her club.

South Webster junior libero Addi Claxon (0)

Ed Litteral | Daily Times

Addi Claxon muscled for 26 digs, followed by 14 from Kaltenbach — and 10 apiece by Raynard and junior Sidney Keslar.

“Up until that fifth set, I thought Mia (Crum) handled her (Perkins) really well. She got some blocks and I thought we dug up most of her balls, then we just fizzled out all of the sudden. We were not lining up correctly, we were late, and Gracie was just exploiting those holes because there is only so much of the court you can cover. That ball will find you if you are not where you are supposed to be. That’s what happened a lot in the fourth and fifth set. Errors exactly,” said Coach Claxon. “You hear me say a lot to ‘play clean’. You can’t serve the ball out of bounds, you can’t hit the ball into the net. Against a good team like Wheelersburg, you are going to pay for that. And that’s what happened.”

As for the rematch you ask?

It’s on Tuesday evening Oct. 8 —at South Webster.

And, it’s the regular season AND SOC III finale.

South Webster will have its opportunity for perhaps the championship share, as Coach Claxon commented that given a Jeeps’ rare loss, hopefully for their sake it’s indeed a lesson learned.

“I told them you can either take this loss and blame your teammates and everybody else and not take responsibility for your part in it, or you can say to yourself that these are things we’ve talked about the entire season and I have to make a change. You don’t feel like you need to make a change when you are winning. But when you lose, it’s like now we have to be more disciplined and figure these things out,” she said. “You just have to rise to the occasion. I’m sorry, but we’re going to have to get tougher. Everybody on this team has got to be ready to compete, has to understand their role, and has to be able to fill that role. There’s nobody else that’s going to be taking anybody’s place. So you either fill your role or you’re going to be exploited. We’re going to keep working on it in practice along with that mental toughness. There’s a lot to be said for just being a competitor. There’s a lot to work on, but we get another chance at them at the end of the season. Nobody thought we were going to be undefeated (entering Tuesday night) at this point. And I don’t even care about being undefeated. That doesn’t matter. We just want to play great volleyball. I hope these lessons that we learned tonight will help us and propel us to play even better.”

Playing better is what Wheelersburg has done — since its two non-league sweep losses two September Saturdays apart (Circleville on Sept. 7 and Westfall on Sept. 14).

Now, in the SOC III for sure, the Pirates are right where they want to be.

Wheelersburg junior libero Mylee Gleim (14)

Ed Litteral | Daily Times

“It’s being able to be to our best, at the full capacity that we need to not let teams take sets from us. It’s part of the game, but it’s a goal that we have, because it’s been rearing its head so much for us,” said Glockner. “This was a great one tonight.”

Reach Paul Boggs by email at [email protected], or on X @paulboggssports © 2024 Portsmouth Daily Times, all rights reserved