Whiteoak has season ended by Paint Valley in sectional semifinals

MOWRYSTOWN — After battling back for a very competitive first set against the No. 12 seeded Paint Valley Lady Bearcats in the 2023 Division IV sectional semifinals, the No. 5 seeded Whiteoak Lady Wildcats lost the match in three straight sets, seeing their season come to a close at home on Monday night.

Whiteoak lost by scores of 25-23, 25-16 and 25-17.

The first set was where all the action and drama was, as Paint Valley jumped out to a 10-0 lead against Whiteoak, following a timeout by the host Lady ’Cats after the score was 6-0.

In the opening six points of the match, PVHS had points scored off a kill from Carleigh Furniss, followed by points from Keegan Cooper and Karris Dye.

As the score increased to 10 points for Paint Valley, they saw Furniss help PVHS to gain three straight points at the net, and the score went to 10-0 after WHS hit the ball out of play.

Eventually the Lady Wildcats trailed 12-2, as Whiteoak’s first point was due to an out-of-bounds serve by PVHS, and the second point of WHS was scored by Brianna Hill.

PVHS eventually led 15-4 with Whiteoak’s fourth point being scored off a play at the net by Reagan Newton. As Paint Valley got to their 17th points, some of the points were put on the board by Dye and Furniss, as she had an ace for the 17-4 lead.

WHS began a comeback with a point by Jaylie Parr, a point off a serve from Lydia Carr, and later a kill from Newton for a 17-10 deficit. WHS scored their 11th point with a hit from Hill, and WHS cut the deficit to 17-12, forcing the Lady Bearcats to call a timeout.

After the timeout, the first set continued with WHS and Paint Valley battling to a 19-17 score, and eventually Whiteoak came back from the early 10-0 deficit to tie the score at 19-19 with four straight points scored by Hill and Newton, as Hill had a hard hit at the net to score the 19th point for WHS.

After another timeout by Paint Valley, they regained the lead with a point scored by Neveah Conley, but Whiteoak answered with a 20-20 score after a hit at the net by Parr. Whiteoak took their first lead of the set with a serve by Hill and a play at the front of the net from Kylee Hamm for a 22-20 advantage.

Paint Valley had an answer of their own with points from Cooper and Furniss, tying the score at 22. Whiteoak took back the lead with a point from Parr, but PVHS ended the set with three straight points as Furniss had consecutive kills, and following a timeout by WHS, the Lady Bearcats saw Furniss score the final point of set one with a kill for the 25-23 win of the first set.

In set two, Paint Valley led nearly the entire set as they won by a 25-16 score, and in the third set it was a little closer as the score was tied at 1-1 up to 9-9, before Paint Valley broke away for the eight-point win at 25-17.

Whiteoak ends the season at 13-9 overall, and in the Southern Hills Athletic Conference (Division II) standings, the Lady Wildcats finished 9-4 for second place.

Seniors for Whiteoak were: Jaylie Parr, Brianna Hill, Claire Ames, Lydia Carr and Reagan Newton.

Paint Valley moves to 7-16 overall as they will play in the sectional finals on Wednesday, Oct. 18 at Trimble with a 7 p.m. start.