By Mark Carpenter
People’s Defender
The progress of the West Union High School volleyball program continued last week as Coach Kiersten Rowe’s squad picked up two wins to improve their season mark to 5-8.
On September 21, the Lady Dragons hosted the Eastern Lady Warriors and the match turned out to be a five-set thriller that eventually went the way of the home team. West Union took the first two sets, 25-19, 26-24 but the Eastern girls battled back to claim the next two 26-24 and 25-21. That set up the always exciting and decisive fifth set and the Lady Dragons prevailed by the slimmest of margins, 15-13.
“This was a huge win for us,” said Coach Rowe. “The girls came out ready to go and I’m proud of how they are playing as a team. They all have such important roles on this team and they are doing them well. Now we have to continue with the same momentum for the rest of the season.”
The West Union stat lines in the Eastern win:
• Payton Stapleton- 2 aces, 2 kills, 2 assists, 12 digs
• Elayna Kingsolver- 5 aces, 4 kills, 1 assist, 18 digs
• Shelbi Weakley- 6 kills, 1 assist, 7 digs
• Carly Leonard- 1 ace, 16 digs
• Ashlah Staten- 1 ace, 4 kills, 39 assists, 14 digs
• Audrey Weakley- 2 aces, 20 kills, 2 assists, 18 digs, 6 blocks
• Korynne Blanton- 2 aces, 21 kills, 1 block, 10 digs
Paige Tolle, Emmy Stapleton and Raegan Cockrell also saw action for West Union in the conference victory.
The Lady Dragons made it two wins in a row on Saturday, September 24 when they traveled to Ripley and handed the Lady jays a straight set defeat- 25-23, 25-9, 25-20 to improve their record in Southern Hills Athletic Conference play to 4-5.
Coach Rowe and her squad were slated to be back in SHAC action on Tuesday, September 27 with a trip to Manchester and will host Piketon in a non-conference match on Saturday, October 1 at 10 a.m.