Oak Glen’s Haylee Stewart and Reecelyn Craig (right) block a spike by Ravenswood’s Macy Casto in a West Virginia regional co-final Wednesday. (Morning Journal/Michael Burich)

NEW MANCHESTER, W.Va. — Oak Glen’s battle-tested volleyball program is used to playing a multiple sets of matches to get into the state tournament.

With the West Virginia Seconday Schools Activities Commission adding an extra division this season, the Golden Bears needed just one win to get to Charleston.

Turning in a solid team effort Oak Glen defeated Ravenswood 25-19, 25-15, 25-16 in a Class AA, Region 1 co-final on Wednesday at the Oak Glen Fieldhouse.

The Class AA top-ranked Golden Bears (26-7-3) will play in the state tournament on Tuesday at the Charleston Coliseum and Convention Center. Seedings for the tournament as voted on by coaches will be revealed on Sunday.

What set up the unusual turn of events where Oak Glen played only one tournament match was Tyler Consolidated bailing on the Region 1, Section 1 final on Halloween.

“At 3 p.m. that day coach texted us and told us the match was canceled. She said stay there for the team meal and she came in and told us about the whole situation,” Oak Glen junior outside hitter Brooklyn Six said.

Oak Glen coach Morgan Saddler said Tyler was on the bus ride over when they informed the Golden Bears they would not be playing.

“They were among the schools that filed an appeal with the state to move down a classification,” Saddler said. “They took it to court and I was told the court granted them a return to Class A.”

Wheeling Central Catholic, which lost to Tyler in the Class AA sectional opener, was moved into the other regional co-final where it lost to defending Class A champion Williamstown on Wednesday.

Ravenswood, located three hours away, came in having lost to Williamstown in five sets in the Region 1, Section 2 final. The Bears, who are used to running over opponents in the sectional and regional rounds, thought this might be a bit different since Williamstown tied the Golden Bears in a regular season meeting.

“I definitely think Ravenswood is a competitive team and they are more competitive than teams that we’ve seen in the past in the regional,” Saddler said. “So hats offw to them for driving all the way up here and being a tough matchup tonight.”

The first set of the evening was a more balanced affair, but it almost took a bad turn for the Golden Bears when junior outside hitter Mckenzi Martin came up limping with her team leading 10-6. It initially appeared that she couldn’t jump and wanted to leave the floor, but timeout was called to regroup.

“I think I went up to block and landed on it sideways and I ended up rolling it,” Martin said. “It still hurts a little bit, but I walked it off. I was struggling for a little bit, but once we took that timeout I was fine after.”

Martin ended up with 15 kills and 18 digs.

Saddler was relieved she was able to stick around in the match.

“It was a little concerning in the moment,” Saddler said. “But we always have Plan B, Plan C and Plan D just in case.”

Once Oak Glen got cooking there was not much the Devilettes could do. In the second game, the Golden Bears built a 9-2 lead out of the gate and cruised from there. The third game was competitive early until the Bear broke free for a 14-7 lead and finished the job from there.

The Golden Bears weren’t ever thoroughly concerned as they’ve played most of the best teams in West Virginia and several strong Ohio programs.

“We wanted to go in prepared to state so we played some tougher teams,” Martin said. “The losses we did take keeps us humble and gets us working on things we didn’t think we had to work on.”

Oak Glen is currently ranked No. 1 in Class AA by MaxPreps and has the toughest schedule in the class according to the site by a wide margin. Ravenswood (24-6) came in as the fifth-ranked team in Class AA.

In addition to the strong Mckenzi Martin performance against the Devilettes, Brooklyn Six had 10 kills and four digs, while Mikalyn Balch had 39 assists and four digs. Averi Martin had nine kills, three digs and four blocks. Reecelyn Craig added six kills, three digs and two blocks. Libero Addison Smith had 10 digs, while Haylee Stewart had two kills and three blocks. Tia Vick had a kill and three digs.

Six said that despite some new faces in the lineup this season, the Golden Bears are poised to defend their Class AA state championship on Tuesday.

“I definitely had hope for us (returning),” Six said. “We definitely worked the whole season for it.”

Game notes

• Since the day was warm and humid, the Oak Glen gym floor got damp at points and the Golden Bear players had to spend a lot of time toweling the floor down.

• The Class AA and A quarterfinal and semifinals will be held on Tuesday with the Class AAA and AAAA quarterfinals and semifinals set for Wednesday. If Oak Glen gets to the championship it will have to wait until Thursday to play the final. The Class A final starts at 9 a.m. with the other classes to follow.

• Philip Barbour, last season’s Class AA finalist, will again likely stand in the way of Oak Glen’s title hopes.

“We lost to them in three sets (in the regular season), but we’re just looking to win when it matters,” Martin said.

• Oak Glen used to play double-elimination tournaments in the sectional and regional rounds under the three-tiered classification. This time there were three total teams in each section, meaning it was single elimination with the top seed getting a bye to the sectional final.

The regional is different in that the two section champions host the regional matches against the sectional runner-up. There are no more regional finals against the winners of the regional co-final matches.

“The whole reclassification concerned us,” Martin said. “By not playing a single game of sectionals was a little nerve-racking.”