HITTING — Big Red’s Analesa Perdue goes up to hit the ball in front of teammate Giuliana Cramer during Monday’s match inside the Crimson Center. - Andrew Grimm

STEUBENVILLE — Monday’s meeting between Wheeling Central and Big Red was a battle between a pair of teams in need of points with the OVAC tournament cutoff looming.

After a back-and-forth battle one would expect in such a situation, it was the Maroon Knights that did their chances to make the Class 3A field a big service.

Wheeling Central (6-3) won the opening set, then shook off a disappointing second to edge out wins in the third and fourth to top Big Red (7-6).

“It was a battle, this is a good win for us against a 5A school,” Wheeling Central head coach Beth Blake said. “We have a very tough schedule the rest of the way so this is a big win. We need to come out and play like this every night.

“We’re sitting about dead in the middle (of the 3A standings) so we needed this. We played very hard and hopefully we can keep it going.”

Wheeling Central, which has now won four-straight, entered the week in seventh place in the standings. They have another big matchup today against Martins Ferry and another later in the week against Monroe Central, both the teams currently ahead of them in 3A.

For Big Red, who entered the week sixth in Class 5A, there were a few key moments that could have resulted in a different outcome, but not enough of them went their way.

“We didn’t come through in a couple of key moments and that is something we need to work harder on,” Big Red head coach Logan Colabella said. “I take the blame for that. We had too many times we needed to buckle down and get a point and we didn’t.

“We bounced back and responded after losing the first set, but turned around and lost the next two. Wheeling Central is a very good team.”

After Wheeling Central fended off Big Red 25-23 in the opening set, Big Red responded in a big way in the second.

After trailing early, Steubenville scored nine-straight points to start what was a 17-3 run. Wheeling Central pushed back, getting back within five, but Big Red closed it out, 25-18.

The next two were back and forth the whole way. In the third, the Knights pushed ahead at the end to win 25-22, then in the fourth, Big Red rallied late to tie the score at 23 after trailing by six, but Wheeling Central tallied the last two points to fend off the rally and close out the win.

“Winning that third set was huge for us,” Blake said. “We have a tendency to get in a hole and have to battle back out of it so getting back in front was very big for us. Even in the second set, we were down big and battled back.”

For the Knights, Remy Peters had 12 kills, Sydney Doyle finished with 10 kills, Lainey Peters added nine kills, 16 points and 33 assists, Kaitlyn Blake posted eight kills and 18 points, Olivia Stephens had 16 digs and Reagan Jones added 14 digs.

Big Red got 10 kills and an ace from Alaina Vrable, Giuliana Cramer had nine kills, five points and an ace, Emma Lyons tallied five blocks and eight kills, Kaitlyn Smith tallied 20 assists, seven points and two kills, Aubrey Slussar finished with 14 assists and Sena Smith tallied five digs and four points.

Big Red is at Edison on Thursday looking for a season sweep of the Wildcats.