Northern Tier West Sports ReportWELLSBORO — The Wellsboro volleyball team made a valiant effort to defend their 2024 District IV title, and despite coming up shy, the Lady Hornets have plenty to look forward to as the program moves forward.
Wellsboro finished the 2025 regular season 16-4 and took the No. 2 seed into the playoffs, where they’d avenge an early season loss to Wyalusing by beating the Lady Rams in the quarterfinals before falling to No. 3 seed Loyalsock in the semis.
“We didn’t meet some of our team goals this year,” says second year Head Coach Darcy Pollock of the 2025 season, “but there were many positives to take away.”
Wellsboro looked to replace 2024 Co-Players of the Year Paige Logsdon and Lexi Urena as they entered the ’25 season, and a strong corp of underclassmen responded.
Sophomore Peyton Keane led the Hornets with 192 kills and 61 aces and was tied for the team-lead in service points .. 171 .. with classmate Kendall Sweet, who added 56 aces, 116 kills and 42 digs.
Returning junior libero Maddy Cruttenden led Wellsboro with 341 digs and added 163 points with 54 aces and 37 assists, while junior Ellie Largey led the team with 315 assists and had 149 digs and 170 service points with 33 aces.
Sophomore Ady Frantz collected 175 kills, 30.5 blocks, 23 digs and 21 points with seven aces, while junior Blake Eckart had 168 kills, 215 digs and 118 points with 44 aces and the Hornets’ lone senior starter, setter Taylor Main, had 221 assists, 150 digs and 132 service points with 22 aces.
Sophomore Jillian Mickey joined the strong group of underclassmen by chipping in 149 digs and 51 service points with 13 aces while classmate Teagan Novinger had 19 kills, 29 digs and six blocks.
“We’ll return most of our starters next year,” says Pollock, “so this season was a great opportunity for our younger players to get experience.”
All of Wellsboro’s losses this season came by 3-2 scores, and the Hornets had nine sweeps, including over Class A champ Sayre, Class A finalist Canton and AA semifinalist North Penn-Liberty.
The Lady Hornets had a 10-match winning streak that started with a 3-1 win over eventual District 4 AA champ Troy, included a 3-1 win over 15-3 Williamson and ended with a 3-2 loss to the Lady Trojans.
“I feel we had another successful season,” says Pollock, “I’m grateful for this team and the work they have put in and I can’t wait to see what they accomplish next season.”
