The Lady Lions put the finishing touches on another undefeated regular season with a 25-18, 25-16, 25-22 sweep of Forest Area in a non-league match Thursday at Warren County Christian School.

Leading the way for the Lady Lions were Desirae Kerr (nine digs, five service points, two aces, one block, five kills and 14 assists), Allison Weidner (four service points, three blocks, seven kills and one assist), Kelsey Kelley (15 digs and one service point), Rachel Brenner (six digs, three service points, one block and 10 kills), Allie Marino (three service points, one ace and one kill), Lydia Cox (two digs, four service points and one kill), Bekah Erdman (five digs, four service points, two aces, three kills and 12 assists), Rachel Beatty (one service point, one ace), and Emma Marino (two digs, 13 service points, three aces and one kill).

Forest Area put up a fight in all three sets, including forcing a 22-22 tie in the third game before the Lady Lions rattled off three straight points to end the match and improve to 12-0.

“I thought Forest was a lot of fun to play,” said WCCS coach Monica Kerr. “They brought a nice game, so I thought our team had a really good challenge. It was a lot of fun playing them and I was glad our seniors got to go out with a win.”

Between the second and third set, the match was stopped to honor Warren County Christian’s four seniors – setter Desirae Kerr, middle hitters Allie Marino and Allison Weidner, and libero Kelsey Kelley.

“They’ve definitely been some of our key players, obviously this year and largely last year too,” Kerr said. “We had a couple other girls that were really strong last year that we lost, but these girls were the core of both teams in a lot of ways.”

Next up for the Lady Lions is a meeting with Erie Bethel in the first round of Saturday’s New Penn Christian Conference Tournament in Erie. The other side of the four-team bracket features CCSI taking on Erie First Christian.

Warren County Christian’s junior varsity team also capped off an undefeated season with a 25-11, 25-7 sweep of Forest Area on Thursday. Emma Marino (23 service points, one dig, seven aces and four kills), Rachel Beatty (three service points, one ace and six assists), McKenna Phelps (one service point and two kills), Kiara Baker (one dig), Bekah Erdman (one dig and two kills), and Malina Bohannon (two service points, one dig and one assist) led the way as the Lady Lions’ JV finished 13-0 overall.

WARREN 3, FRANKLIN 0

FRANKLIN Warren improved to 10-4 overall and 9-4 in Region 4 with a 3-0 (25-12, 25-23, 25-23) win on the road at Franklin on Thursday.

The win was the third in four days for the Lady Dragons, as they held on to their second place position in region play.

“We notched another region win on the road against an improved Franklin team,” said Warren coach Mike Dolan. “Tough serving and blocking along with making plays when we needed them was the difference in games 2 and 3.”

Haley Nelson (8 kills, 12 digs), Lydia Latimer (11 kills, 3 blocks, 3 aces), Megan Wortman (6 kills, 2 aces), Hunter Uplinger (11 digs), Ellie Lobdell (23 assists), Celia Chase (4 kills, 6 digs) and Haley Tuller (1 kill, block) led Warren.

The JV team was also a winner, 25-14, 26-24.

Pacing the Lady Dragons were Julia Lobdell (3 aces, 6 digs), Payge Sumrow (7 aces, 2 kills, 5 digs), Makenna Brown (3 kills, 3 aces) and Lex Nyquist (7 assists, 1 kill, 3 digs).

The JVs will return to action Saturday at the Fort LeBoeuf Tournament, while a very important game looms on Tuesday at home against Conneaut.

?

EISENHOWER?3, SAEGERTOWN 2

Eisenhower was plenty fired up for its senior night contest against Saegertown and it showed.

The Lady Knights picked up their third win of the season, 3-2 (25-14, 24-26, 25-15, 22-25, 17-15).

“It was their senior night, so they were pretty pumped up,” said Eisenhower coach Ashlee Sprandle. “Being back in school and having a routine is benefiting them too. We lost a close one on the road to them (Saegertown), so I think all those little things made a difference.”

Leading Eisenhower was Madi Hultman (17 digs, 7 kills, 1 assist, 6 aces), Currie Hultman (6 digs, 6 kills, 1 block, 4 aces), Cameran Edwards (8 digs, 4 kills, 20 assists, 2 aces) and Shanna Peters (7 digs, 6 kills, 2 aces).

The JV team fell 22-25, 9-25.

Anna McJunkin (8 digs, 1 kill, 1 assist) and Alexis Courtney (1 dig, 3 kills) paced Ike, which plays its final game Tuesday at Union City.

—

MAPLEWOOD 3, YOUNGSVILLE 0

It takes serious skill to be ranked fifth in the state, and that skill was on full display as Maplewood swept the Lady Eagles 2-25, 10-25 and 8-25 in Region 3 action Thursday at Youngsville High School.

Despite the loss, Youngsville coach Barb Lutton was happy with the way her team went into the match.

“I was really pleased with the way they played,” Lutton said. “They were more energetic, communication was better. It’s nice to see them show that kind of spirit maybe for the first time all year.”

Lydia Clark led the Lady Eagles with four service points and one kill, Alison Ishman had nine digs and three service points, Madi Fehlman had four service points, and Megan Foley had a kill with three total blocks – two solo and one assisted. Clark and Jada Rounds also had two block assists.

Youngsville is now 1-13 overall and 1-12 in Region 3 while Maplewood improves to 13-0.

The Lady Eagles also fell in the JV match, 10-25 and 7-25. Erin Dunn and Allexa Morgan both had five service points and four digs with Dunn also adding two kills.

“Maplewood is an excellent program and has been for years,” said Youngsville JV coach Michelle Johnson. “Despite that, the girls came in and played hard defense.”

Youngsville visits Saegertown on Tuesday.

—

ECC 3, SHEFFIELD 1

ST. MARYS – The Lady Wolverines were defeated by Elk County Catholic in four games on Thursday, 10-25, 14-25, 25-19 and 13-25.

“They play a faster pace, so at practice we were working on some different hitting attacks and doing different things on offense,” said Sheffield coach Melissa Lemay. “We had a chance to work on some of that in the third game when they were making substitutions. They kept their big three in the front row but moved people around in back.”

Rachel Lemay had 13 assists in addition to eight service points and five aces, Mya Grubbs had eight service points and 10 digs, Claire Pierson had six kills and Taya Bailey added 12 digs.

Sheffield’s JV team lost a close match, 17-25, 25-19 and 13-15. Megan Johnson had eight service points and five aces, Callen Copley had five assists and Tessa Anderson had three kills.

The Lady Wolverines are off until next Thursday when they host Ridgway for senior recognition night at SHS.