Blues Fall To Giles, Finish 13-13 Overall
By Jeremy S. Franklin Parry McCluer High School saw its volleyball campaign conclude with a 3-0 defeat to Mountain Empire District champion Giles in the quarterfinals of the Region 1C tournament in Pearisburg on Monday of last week.
The Spartans (22-2), who claimed the top seed from the Mountain Empire District after beating six-time defending Class 1 state champion Auburn in the district finals, dispatched the Fighting Blues by a 2514, 25-15, 25-11 count.
Kadence Zollman paced PM, the No. 4 seed out of the Pioneer District, with five kills and nine digs. Jorja Catlett tallied 11 assists and two blocks for the Blues, while Emory Slagle also posted two blocks and Josie Martinez chipped in three kills.
Martinez, Presley Camden and Allie Cullen recorded five digs apiece for the PM defense, and Cullen and Martinez each served up one ace.
But ultimately, two-time Class 1 state player of the year Sophie Taylor and the Spartans proved to be too much for the Blues to handle. The 6-foot-1-inch Taylor, who has committed to play Division I volleyball at the University of Mississippi, broke the Virginia High School League career kills record earlier this season.
“Her being on the other side of the net made my girls a little nervous,” PM head coach Jilane Hall said of Taylor. “Her presence made it a little bit of a mental game.”
The Region 1C quarterfinals featured four matchups between the Pioneer District and the Mountain Empire District, with the latter winning all four. Giles swept third-seeded Bland County 3-0 in the semifinals to set up another matchup with Auburn in the regional finals. The Spartans have won all three head-to-head matchups against the Eagles this season, and round four was scheduled for last night.
Given the strength of the Mountain Empire and the Giles squad in particular, Hall was pleased with the resilience that her team displayed last Monday.
“We were holding our own at times, but they just outplayed us and outlasted us in the end,” the PM coach said. “I’m not mad about our performance. We did what we could.”
The Blues wrap up the 2025 campaign with a 13-13 overall record, including a 6-4 mark that landed them in third place in the Pioneer District. After falling to Narrows in the Pioneer semifinals and to Bath County in a 3-2 thriller in
, page A8 the district third-place match, PM landed as the No. 4 seed for the regional tournament.
The Blues had to replace four all-district honorees from their 2024 squad, which won the program’s first Pioneer District tournament title since 2005. And after serving as the junior varsity coach last season, Hall took over at the varsity level for Jessie Moala, who had guided PM for the previous three campaigns.
Given all of those changes, “I think a lot of the girls coming into the season had very low expectations” for what the team could accomplish, Hall said.
But the Blues earned a reputation for long rallies and long matches, extending points with defensive grunt work and routinely frustrating opposing hitters.
“I’m really, really, really proud of how my girls were able to put their heads down, work, get better on defense,” Hall said. “We were able to win some games and do some crazy rallies, give ourselves another chance on offense.
“I’m really proud of them for having that drive, having that fire, wanting to get better,” she added. “I think they’ll set themselves up really well for seasons to come.”
PM will graduate two seniors from this fall’s roster: Zollman, a first-team all-district selection, and Cullen, who earned second team all-district honors. Slagle, a junior, and the freshman duo of Catlett and Camden garnered honorable mention all-district accolades.
And Hall, a 2024 graduate of Southern Virginia University, is still just a couple of seasons removed from her playing career. She believes that her short tenure as a varsity head coach has already been a great learning experience.
“I’ve loved it. It’s been really fun to just make that transition from player to coach,” Hall said. “Having to train myself to be a coach instead of a player has been very interesting. … I feel like I’ve learned a lot of really good things about teamwork and being a player, a lot of the mental side.”
