"It was just a good team effort," Lady Senators coach Dee Cox said. "We had some good serving and good blocks."
The Lady Senators (4-18) advance to Saturday's sectional championship against host and top-seed Wheelersburg.
"We have the toughest team in the conference on Saturday and we got to go in and play the best that we can," Cox said.
For Lady Trojan coach Dan Stanley, the loss ends a rough 1-20 season.
"We're pretty young and every ball the whole season just didn't go our way," Stanley said. "Every time you looked up, a ball went a different direction or we needed a serve and couldn't get it."
That case for Stanley was evident in the second game. Down 13-0 in the second game, Portsmouth went on a 14-3 run and made the deficit 16-14 and forced Cox to call the only timeout she needed the entire match.
"We were right there," Stanley said.
The rally for the Lady Trojans ended thereafter and took out the remaining momentum they had left. As Stanley described it, the turn of events was the theme of the entire season.
Richelle Bowman led the scoring for Portsmouth with 13 points and three aces, Monica Call had 11 points and a team-high four aces, Klaire Smith added 10 points and two aces and Alexis Lanthorn chipped in with seven points and three aces. West was paced by Kacie Callihan's 27 points, Hayley Sparks had 15 points, Morgan Bridwell finished with 11.
"It's nice to have a home game for a tournament play," Cox said.
Other scoring for the Lady Trojans included Katherine Meriwether (five), Lori Keaton (four), Laini Jackson (three) and libero Kacey Simpson (one). The Lady Senators also had scoring from Taylor Newman (nine and an ace), Cheyanne White (eight and an ace), and Lexie Kegley (five).
Portsmouth loses seniors Bowman, Call, Lanhorn, Mary Scherer, Kaitlin Livingston and Samantha Higgens to graduation.
"They've worked hard," Stanley said. "We started back in the summer, did some three-hour practices and they came to play."
CODY LEIST can be reached at 740-353-3101 ext. 242
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