Bridgeport High School Ali Burton thought her team could be a title contender in 2024 so to help get the Indians ready for state tournament time, she built as tough a regular-season schedule as she could.
 
It paid off as two weeks ago, Bridgeport won the Class AAA state championship. Along the way on securing the program's second-ever state title (they previously won the Class AA championship in 2018), the Indians finished with a record of 52-8-2. They were undefeated at home, undefeated against fellow Class AAA competition, including wins prior to the start of the state tournament against every school in the field except Herbert Hoover, who they defeated in the title match.
 
They had victories against 31 different schools who advanced to the co-regional round throughout the four classes and within that 52-8-2 record, they won 108 sets and lost just 21.
 
Facing that strong of competition throughout the season also means the Indians saw plenty of the state's best players. In fact, of the 20 players who earned Class AAA All-State first team or second team honors, BHS found itself on the other side of the net against 16 of them.
 
Of course, to navigate through all of that and be the last team standing, you need some pretty good players of your own and that was certainly the case for the Indians, who have two first-team selections in seniors Myleigh Smell and Kaylee Enfield along with a second-teamer in junior Salam Rajjoub on the Class AAA All-State Volleyball Team announced today by the West Virginia Sports Writers Association.
 
Additionally, senior Calleigh Morgan and junior Addison Veigel both earned honorable mention status.
 
Smell finished this year with 632 kills, 400 digs, 74 aces, 63 blocks and 27 assists. Enfield had 537 digs, 104 assists and 46 aces. Smell and Enfield both surpassed the 1,000-dig mark for their careers this year and Smell also surpassed 1,000 career kills.
 
Rajjoub had a breakout junior season for the Indians, finishing with 303 kills, 92 aces, 122 digs, 26 assists and 65 blocks.
 
Morgan finished with 225 kills, 91 aces, 142 digs and 42 blocks. Veigel took over as the team's primary setter in 2024 and posted 692 assists to go along with 35 kills, 44 aces and 228 digs.