GOING UP — Weir High’s Brayley Lash hits past Big Red’s Emma Lyons and A’rya Bigsby during Thursday’s match inside the Crimson Center. - Andrew Grimm

STEUBENVILLE — After a back-and-forth opening set in which the Red Riders emerged victorious, visiting Weir High kept the momentum.

The Red Riders took that momentum and turned it into a three-set sweep of homestanding Big Red on Steubenville’s senior night inside the Crimson Center.

Weir High (12-9), after seeing Big Red erase a deficit, surged back ahead to win the opening set 25-23. They won the second 25-20 and the third 25-16 to close things out.

“I think we did a really good job of progressing in each set,” Weir head coach Fran Capaldi said. “We talked about passing the ball with intent and trusting our teammates and I think it showed. We have had our ups and downs this season, but we talk about how we come back after a loss and we lost Tuesday, so this was a big performance for the girls to come right back and win.

“When we had momentum, we were able to keep it going. The girls can do that when they have confidence in one another.”

For Big Red (10-9), there were moments it had the momentum but they just weren’t able to sustain it.

“I feel like we would get going at some points then just drop back down again,” Big Red head coach Logan Colabella said. “It was hard to sustain any momentum, we really didn’t have much momentum the whole night.”

Thursday was the cutoff for the OVAC tournament, both teams entered the week below the line in their class. With Harrison Central, the team directly ahead of Weir in the Class 4A standings, winning against St. Clairsville Thursday, both teams are likely going to play in the consolation pool next week.

For Weir High, Amalia Kirlingitis had 10 assists, six digs and two kills, Kylie Dean tallied 12 assists, three digs and two aces, Brayley Lash recorded 10 kills, three aces, four digs and four blocks, Maleea Faulks had nine kills, an ace and nine digs, Janai Turner tallied 22 digs and Marissa Mascio finished with six kills, three aces and seven digs.

For Big Red, Kaitlyn Smith recorded two kills and nine assists, Aubrey Slussar had nine assists, Alaina Vrable tallied six kills, Analesa Perdue recorded three kills, a block and two points and Giuliana Cramer finished with seven points and two kills.

Prior to the match, Big Red recognized its five seniors — Perdue, Kaitlyn Smith, Sena Smith, Vrable and Kayla Biasi.

“This is a great group of seniors,” Colabella said. “They lead by example and they will be missed when they’re gone. I wish it had gone a little differently for them.”

UP NEXT

The Red Riders will wait and see where they finished in the OVAC standings and who they draw for consolation matches next week, while Big Red has one more regular season match hosting Cambridge at noon on Saturday.