ATHENS — Third time's the charm for Canton as the Warriors won the battle of the Warriors to claim the District IV, Class AA Volleyball title, but it was only by the hardest. In a battle of wills Canton prevailed over Williamson, 3-2, and rallied from a 13-10 deficit in the fifth set to win 15-13.

"It's really awesome," Canton coach Jackie Thompson said. "This group has been on that side a couple of times, and so for them to come out on top tonight is very rewarding."

In 2024 Canton lost to a very good NEB squad, then in 2025 fell to a red hot Sayre team. 

"Oh my God, it feels so good," Danah Wesneski said about bringing home gold.

The match itself was as nerve-racking as it gets with Williamson holding on for a 27-25 first set win, only for Canton to take the second set 25-19.

Canton found its groove in the third set for a 25-16 win, but Williamson got their second wind in the fourth set to win 25-18.

"I don't even have words," Makenna Seachrist said about playing a match like that in the district final. "We played our hearts out for all those five sets, and we came out on top."

The team got rolling when Seachrist got rolling in those middle sets as she finished with 12 kills, 10 digs, nine points, three blocks, and an ace.

"She's a beast," Thompson said about Seachrist. "Her and Addy (Cardona) both, they're probably two of the best middles in the league as far as offense-defense. They see the court very well - It's just a brick wall up there and a lot of teams struggle with it."

Cardona finished with seven kills, four blocks, and a dig.

Hannah Walters had a big night with 11 kills, including two big ones in their late fifth set rally, to go with three digs.

Running the offense was freshman Peyton Taylor and sophomore Brenna Van Noy. Taylor finished with 27 assists, 11 digs, 16 points, one block, three aces, and six kills, while Van Noy had five assists, and three digs.

"(Taylor) took it well, and ran a really, really good offense," Thompson said. "We have Brenna come in a couple rotations and give her a bit of a mental break, and those two ran our offense very well tonight."

Taylor never thought she'd be in this position as a freshman.

"I'm really grateful that the hitters are all amazing," she remarked. "They can get any set that I give to them."

Defensively, Canton had 96 digs on the night, which is a very Canton stat to have if anybody knows Canton volleyball.

"They have very good hitters, and not only are they good hitters, they know how to place the ball, so it's very hard to know where they're going to hit the balls," said libero Cailyn Van Noy. "It's very hard to get it, but I think we did a very good job in the back row getting their  digs. We passed pretty well, too, so I think we did a good job."

Van Noy finished with 24 digs, three assists, one point, and an ace, while Wesneski had 26 digs to lead the team, eight kills, and three points.

She saved two points by going into the stands.

"I was hurting but I'm good," said Wesneski. "It was fun."

Emilia Pepper notched 14 points, six kills, three digs, and two aces, with Kaybree Kendall adding 18 points, three aces, and 15 digs.

Serving was another strength for Canton as they finished with 10 aces in the night.

"They served really well," said Thompson. "They moved the ball around really well."

In fact, it was a Kendall ace that put Canton up 1-0 to start the first set, followed by a Pepper kill for a 2-0 lead.

Williamson rallied with four straight points to go up 4-2, then Canton struck back with three points of their own, including a Walters kill, to go up 5-4.

The Warriors would use three Canton errors and a kill from Joslyn Kendrick to go up 8-5.

Taylor would serve Canton back into the lead as she had three aces to put them up 11-8. Errors hurt Canton, again, as Williamson used them to tie it up 11-11, followed by an Aubrey Wells hit for a 12-11 lead.

A Wesneski kill made it 12-12, but Williamson rattled off five straight after that for a 17-12 lead.

A Walters kill ended the run, but Wells came back with a hit of her own as Williamson would run their lead to 20-15.

Three straight Williamson errors later, though, and it was 20-18 and they had to call a timeout.

An Olivia Nolan hit made it 21-18, but a Pepper kill got Canton a side out. She followed that with an ace, then saw Seachrist get a hit to knot things up at 21-all.

A Williamson free ball that landed out put Canton up 22-21, though a Nolan kill tied things back up again.

Cardona would get a block to make it 23-22, as the teams traded errors for a 24-23 score.

A long Canton serve knotted things up at 24-all, with Williamson taking the lead 25-24 on another Canton miscue.

A Williamson net touch saw things knot up at 25, but back to back kills from Nolan gave Williamson the first set win.

Canton started off the second set strong thanks to kills from Pepper and Taylor. 

Williamson rallied with five straight points only to watch a Pepper kill spark a five point Canton run.

Kendall added an ace during the spurt while Taylor had another kill.

A Dana Lapointe hit ended that run but a Williamson error started another as Canton built a 10-6 lead behind kills from Taylor and Walters.

After a bad Canton serve a Walters kills put them up 11-7. Back to back Williamson points made it 11-9, but a 2-0 run from Canton, including another Walters kill, made it 13-9.

Things continued back and forth to 17-13 when a Seachrist block forced Williamson to call a timeout.

Kendall came out of the break with an ace to make it a 5-point lead with Williamson cutting it to 18-15.

They got it as close as 20-19 but then saw Seachrist rattled off four straight points during a 5-0 run to get the win.

Canton's block played a big part in the closing points as Cardona finished with back to back blocks to secure the win.

"It was huge," Thompson said. "We're used to having those two up there and getting hands on a  majority of the balls. When they don't it shifts our defense a little bit, but the second game they settled in, and got the timing down, and it was different game at that point."

Pepper opened the third set with a kill but it was Williamson taking a 3-1 lead off a pair of aces for Lapointe.

Canton rallied with eight straight points, including a Taylor kill and a Pepper ace to go up 9-3. Walters also had two kills during that stretch with Taylor finishing things off with a kill.

Back to back kills from Maddison Fay cut it to 9-6, but Canton struck back with five more points, including kills from Wesneski and Seachrist, with Seachrist also getting two blocks.

Up 14-6 the closest Williamson got it was 16-10 off a Wells hit, but watched Canton build a 20-12 lead off two kills from Wesneski and one from Cardona.

It was back and forth from there as Canton out scored them 5-4.

"We found their holes," Wesneski said. "We hit those, we aimed for those."

Cardona led off the fourth set with a kill but it was all Williamson after that as they jumped out to a 7-2 lead.

Canton cut it to 9-4 with a Seachrist kill but in the blink of an eye it was 12-4 and Williamson was pulling away.

Canton did get it to 22-17 off a Walters kill, but Williamson out scored them 3-1 the rest of the way to knot things up at 2-2.

In the deciding set Canton led 5-2, mostly off Williamson errors, but Williamson cut it to 6-5 off a Lapointe kill.

Walters came back with a strike down the line to make it 7-5, but the next Canton hit was out of bounds.

Wesneski's kill would make it 8-6, but a Nolan hit saw Williamson cut it to 8-7.

Pepper would get a kill for a 9-7 score, but three straight Williamson points put them up 10-9.

"It was tough," Van Noy said about the slugfest in the fifth set. "We said before the set, go one point at a time, first to five points, first to 10 points, just break it down and make it less overwhelming."

Seachrist would tie things up with a kill, only to watch Williamson rattle off three straight points to get two away from the title.

"I think there was kind of some pressure there, but we knew we had to keep fighting in order to come out on top of it," Seachrist said.

Back to back kills from Walters made it a 1-point set.

"It was heart stopping for every point," Wesneski said about the run. "I was so nervous every point, every kill, every dig - it was crazy."

The match would end on three Williamson errors - a net touch, a hit into the net, and a hit that was out - as Canton would claim their first district title since 2021.

Thompson felt it could end up being a match like this.

"It knew it was going to be a grunge match," Thompson said. "They're both evenly matched, equally played teams. Every time we play them it's back and forth, good volleyball, so you know to expect that. You want to see that in the district final."

It was Taylor serving up the final four points for Canton, through two Williamson timeouts.

"I was terrified," she said. "I'm not really a super consistent server, I thought I was going to miss it."

Thompson, though, wasn't worried.

"She took a good couple deep breaths and laid the team on her back and finished the game for us," she said. "You can't ask for anything else."

That fifth set will be one that will go down in Canton volleyball lore.

"They fought like crazy, so to come out with the win was awesome," Van Noy said.

Canton will head to Blue Ridge on Wednesday for the first round of the PIAA, Class AA Playoffs.

"I think this will carry our momentum into states," Seachrist said.

— —