CELEBRATING — The Weir High volleuball team celebrates together after getting the final point in the fifth set to defeat Big Red on Thursday night. - Andrew Grimm

The Red Riders showed a lot of it on Thursday night.

In a back and forth battle with a visiting Big Red team that had more than double Weir’s win total, coach Fran Capaldi’s group put together a strong fifth and final set to take a hard-fought 3-2 victory on Ron “Fritz” Williams Court.

“That’s a very big win for us,” Capaldi said. “I’m hoping this turns our season around and give us momentum the rest of the way.”

Weir High (5-13-1) won the first (25-18), third (25-14) and fifth (15-6) sets, bouncing back both times Steubenville (11-9) was able to even the match.

Weir High’s Makenna Potock attempts to block a try from Big Red’s Giuilian Cramer during Thursday’s match. - Andrew Grimm

“We have not been in many five set games this year and we knew coming in that Big Red was a team that comes back and has played in a lot of five set games, they just went five sets John Marshall the other night, so we knew it had potential to be a long night,” Capaldi said. “Getting a big lead early in the fifth set was big.

“We’ve worked a lot in practice and even in our losses at simplifying the game, making it games to five, making the games smaller. We’ve worked a lot on our mental toughness and having a purpose behind every ball that we touch.”

Big Red won the second set 25-5 and hung on in the fourth with a 25-23 victory to extend the match, but could not rally after getting down early in the fifth. It was the third time in the last two weeks Big Red was in a five set match.

“We played a five set game on Monday against a very good John Marshall team, we had to make some adjustments between games because our setter got hurt in practice … we played hard, we just couldn’t finish the game tonight,” Big Red head coach Logan Colabella said. “We had momentum at times, but we couldn’t keep it. It was like a roller coaster, up and down, up and down. That is something we’ll work on. We’ll get back to work and see where the OVAC standings fall.”

For the Red Riders, Ella Kaufman tallied nine kills, 20 digs and two assists, Amalia Kirlangitis recorded 27 assists, 10 digs, four kills and two aces, Gabby Sprouse had eight kills, four aces and two digs and Illionna Kirlangitis finished with five kills, three aces, 12 digs and two assists.

Big Red’s Norah Younce sets for a teammate against Weir High. - Andrew Grimm

Big Red was led by Arya Bigsby with 16 kills and nine digs, Norah Younce with 24 assists, an ace and a kill, Emma Lyons with four aces, five kills and six digs and Addy Snyder and Giulina Cramer with six kills each.

UP NEXT

Big Red: Was on the bubble to make the OVAC Class 5A field entering Thursday’s cutoff in fourth place. They had to wait to see if they stayed there after the loss, and they did, holding off Parkersburg South by just over one percentage point for fourth place.

Weir High: The Red Riders will not qualify for the OVAC Class 4A tournament and will wait to see who they draw in the consolation pool next week. Their next regular season match is Oct. 12 against Tyler Consolidated.

Weir High’s Amalia Kirlangitis lines up a serve against Big Red. - Andrew Grimm