Pelham downs Helena in straight sets to reach super regionals

Published 1:02 am Friday, October 18, 2024

By Andrew Simonson

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By ANDREW SIMONSON | Sports Editor

PELHAM – The Pelham Panthers are on to a familiar place–the Class 6A super regionals–after downing their biggest rival in an elimination match.

Pelham swept the Helena Huskies 3-0 on Thursday, Oct. 17 at Pelham High School in the Class 6A, Area 8 semifinals.

The Panthers would go on to lose the championship match to the Chelsea Hornets 3-2, but their semifinal win extended their season another week.

While Pelham went on to win the match, Helena took the early lead in the match, going up 4-2 before winning four of the next six points to lead 8-4.

However, the Panthers flipped the script with a 5-0 run to take a 9-8 lead. The Huskies tied the set twice in a back-and-forth before Pelham grabbed a 13-10 lead and held it for good.

The Panthers extended their lead down the stretch and won the final three points in the set to seal the 25-17 win and go up 1-0 in the match.

Just like the first set, Helena won the first point, but this time, Pelham took the next three to take the lead and never looked back.

The Panthers won three straight points to go up 6-3 before the lead swelled to six at the 13-7 mark as they continued to control the set.

Later, the Huskies nearly erased that lead with a 5-0 run to make the score 16-15. However, Camryn McMinn orchestrated a 6-0 run that put Pelham up 22-15 and the lead out of reach.

The Panthers soon secured a 25-18 win in the second set to increase their lead in the match to 2-0.

Pelham took an early hold on the third set with a 6-3 lead, but Helena battled with its back against the wall and won five straight points to take an 8-6 lead.

The Panthers immediately tied back up the set but couldn’t retake the lead until the 10-9 mark, and Londyn Wynn added an ace to make it 11-9.

Pelham extended the lead to 13-10 with a McMinn kill in the back corner, however, the Huskies won two points back-to-back to kick off a back-and-forth stretch.

The Panthers looked to have daylight with a 16-13 lead, but Helena grabbed a 17-16 lead off four straight points.

That led to another tightly contested stretch where Pelham could only tie the game and was unable to take the lead.

Everything changed after the teams were tied at 20-20 as the Panthers finally retook the lead and went up 22-20.

The Huskies made one final stand by tying the set up at 22-22. Pelham withstood the challenge and won the next three points to take the 25-22 win in the third set and sweep the Huskies 3-0 to reach super regionals.

The Panthers looked to have a firm control on their area finals matchup with Chelsea, winning the first set 25-16 and the second set 25-15.

However, the Hornets flipped the momentum right in their favor by taking the third set 25-20 and the fourth set 25-13 to force a fifth set.

While Pelham led for much of the set and got to match point with a Kaliyah Arrington block, Chelsea overcame the 14-13 deficit, winning the next three points to take the set 16-14 and claim the area championship.

The loss was the first area defeat for the Panthers since Oct. 5, 2023 against John Carroll Catholic and just the second since the beginning of the 2020 season. Both losses were in five sets.

Despite the loss, Pelham’s runner-up finish secured them a date with the Saraland Spartans in the first round of the south super regionals on Wednesday, Oct. 23 at 9 a.m. at the Cramton Bowl Multiplex in Montgomery.

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