MERCERVILLE, Ohio — Thursday evening’s four set victory made history at South Gallia High School.

It was the first ever sectional volleyball title for the Lady Rebels.

South Gallia (18-5) won the match and the Division IV Sectional title by scores of 15-25, 25-17, 25-7 and 25-10.

In the opening set, the Lady Rebels jumped out to the 5-2 lead, before Southern rallied to take the 12-7 lead. The Lady Tornadoes scored nine consecutive points to take a 22-9 advantage. South Gallia scored six of the final nine points, but it was not enough as Southern held on for the 25-15 first set win.

The Lady Rebels did not trail in the second set of the match, leading by as many as 11 points (18-7).

After a 1-0 deficit in the third set, the Lady Rebels held Southern to just one point on serve in the remainder of the set. The Lady Rebels did not trail in the fourth set.

Tori Duncan led the Lady Rebels with 13 points (one ace), followed by Lauren Saunders with nine points (three aces), Meghan Caldwell and Chandra Canaday with eight points (one ace) each, Chrissy Howell added seven points, Ellie Bostic had five points (one ace), Brynn Adams had one point (one ace) and Shelby Merry had one point.

Katelyn Hill led the Lady Tornadoes with 11 points, followed by Jordan Huddleston with seven points, and Courtney Thomas, Emily Ash and Maggie Cummins with three points each.

Caldwell had 13 kills for the Lady Rebels, Adams had 12 kills, Merry added eight kills, Bostic had seven kills, Canaday with five kills, Duncan with two kills and Howell with one kill. Caldwell had nine blocks and Canaday added eight to pace the Lady Rebels. Bostic added five blocks and Merry had one.

SGHS had defeated S0uthern twice during the regular season, winning in three sets at Southern (25-12, 25-15, 25-14) and in four sets just a week ago at home (16-25, 25-17, 25-13 and 25-19).

The Lady Rebels will face top seeded South Webster at 6 p.m. on Thursday at Jackson High School.