Williamstown ‘s Shelby Smith (14) celebrates with teammates during Wednesday’s regional co-final victory over Wheeling Central. The Yellowjackets won in straight sets to advance to the state tournament. (Photo by Kerry Patrick)

WILLIAMSTOWN — Becca Shamblin’s postgame tears reflected her final experience playing volleyball on her home floor at Williamstown High School.

There were also some tears of joy mixed in as the Yellowjackets advanced to the Class AA state tournament after sweeping Wheeling Central 25-19, 25-22 and 25-10 during Wednesday’s Region I final.

“This is so amazing,” said Shamblin, who finished with a team-high nine kills and 11 points, including three aces. “It’s my fourth time going down there — I’m just so excited. Right now we are peaking at the perfect time.At the beginning of the year we were a little shaky and had to find what rotations to run.

“We’ve come together as a team and now we are ready to finish the job.”

The Yellowjackets, who improve to 28-9-3, are on the cusp of a possible four-peat. Their quest at the state tournament in Charleston enters a new phase. The previous state titles occurred in Class A.

Williamstown's Shelby Smith (14) spikes the ball. (Photo by Kerry Patrick)

“With all the drama lately and all the uncertainty with some teams, I feel very blessed we get to be one of the teams that make it to the state tournament,” Williamstown coach Rachelle Cole said. “We all know that Class AA has some pretty heavy hitters. We’re just thankful we worked hard enough to get here and now we just get to play a little more volleyball.”

Wheeling Central, which had been eliminated earlier in the postseason, received word last Thursday that the volleyball team received a second life and earned the right to play Williamstown in a regional setting.

The Maroon Knights, which end the campaign at 10-15-1, uncharacteristically missed seven serves in the first two games and might have made the difference as they attempted to overcome a rough start.

“Those service errors are atypical of us,” Wheeling Central coach Beth Blake said.

“We are usually a very good serving team. We did have a lot of service errors. We were just off a little bit tonight.”

In the opening game, Wheeling Central fell behind 15-6 then battled for throughout the first two games before the Yellowjackets ambushed the Maroon Knights in the final game.

The arrival of Annabelle Haught and Shelby Smith to the program at the start of the season for the first time paid dividends, especially against Wheeling Central. Both girls finished with seven kills, while Smith turned in a team-high eight blocks.

Smith, who is known for her talents on the track, tracked down several key balls by stretching out her arm to keep the play alive for a winning point. One of those played a crucial role in the opening game when her save resulted in a kill on the outside by Haught to give the Yellowjackets a 22-17 lead.

“This being my first year, I really wish I played throughout high school because I love every single one of the girls,” Smith said. “And I’m just so blessed to call them my teammates. It’s been such a great opportunity.

“We had a lot of work to do at the beginning of the season — we just buckled down and figured what we had to do. We wanted to get to state and we got there. We got that done, but we are not finished yet.”

Game 2 tested the patience of the coaching staff as Wheeling Central built a 16-12 lead on a kill by Reagan Jones.

Eventually, Williamston erased the deficit thanks to a pair of service points by Haught which put her team in front 20-18.

Williamstown never trailed again and moved ever so close to a regional title on a kill by Shamblin, followed later by one from Smith on game point.

Four service points from Kyndra Johnson opened Game 3 and Wheeling Central never found its footing. At one juncture, the Maroon Knights fell behind 18-3.

In a regular season meeting between the two schools in Wheeling, the Maroon Knights won the first two sets before Williamstown rallied in the next three sets.

“Falling behind in that third game, we have had a tendency to do that,” Blake said. “Our record is not real great, but we have been in so many games we can’t finish.

“We lost to Tyler last Tuesday and people thought we were done. People moved on. They got back into their work schedules and some onto other sports. It gave us a life we should never have had in the first place.”

Contact Kerry Patrick at kpatrick@newsandsentinel.