DC, Trinity advance to region title game
Oct. 28—Daviess County has reached the championship match of the 3rd Region Volleyball Tournament for the second straight year.
Whitesville Trinity will play in the 3rd Region volleyball championship match for the first time in school history.
They will meet Thursday at 6 p.m. at Owensboro Catholic's gym after what each team was able to accomplish on Wednesday in the regional semifinals. Daviess County will be going for a second straight regional volleyball crown.
Trinity had a major fight on its hands with a 3-2 win over Meade County in the first semifinal on Wednesday (25-16, 23-25, 25-27, 25-23, 16-14).
Daviess County (21-9) didn't have as much drama in its regional semifinal against Ohio County, but the Lady Panthers had to make plenty of plays on the way to a 3-0 sweep (25-22, 25-23, 25-23) in the other semifinal.
DAVIESS COUNTY 3 OHIO COUNTY 0
DC would get big leads in each set, then have to withstand a run back by Ohio County. The Lady Panthers closed out the first set with a Josie Newcom kill and a Newcom block after they were up 23-22.
DC was up 15-10 in the second set, then it was locked up 15-all after kills by Ohio County's Kaitlyn Sampson and Camryn Kennedy. The Lady Panthers were able to go up 24-23 on a block by Lexi Owen, and an Owen ace ended the set 25-23.
The third set showed a lot of hustle plays by Daviess County to keep points alive. DC was up 21-16 when Ohio County scored three straight and squeezed DC down the stretch before Owen ended the match on a good placement.
"Just a good, solid match," DC coach Tyla Bailey said. "I'm very pleased with the team effort. Offensively, running tempo, on a good pass and in transition, we're doing a much better job of speeding it up a little bit and not getting the block enough time to get set. We did limit the amount of missed serves we had. The last time we played, we were in way double digits, tonight we cut that down to three.
"The third set, we made some plays that honestly surprised me that we made. Was our technique the greatest? No, but we kept the ball in play, I'm very proud of the hustle."
Owen finished with 20 assists, seven digs, four blocks for DC. Sydney DeRossitt and Newcom each had eight kills. Newcom also had five digs, three aces and two blocks. Kayla Thomson had four blocks. Kayla Clark had 11 digs. Mary Grace Hill had six kills and nine digs.
Ohio County finished the season 20-11. Heaven Vanover had seven kills, five blocks and 11 digs for the Lady Eagles. Caroline Law had six kills, nine assists and 14 digs. Sampson had six kills and 16 digs. Kara Porter had four blocks, three kills. Kennedy had 18 assists, six kills and four blocks.
Lindsey Bryant had 11 digs. Madison Kircher had eight digs.
WHITESVILLE TRINITY 3 MEADE COUNTY 2
A Cassidy Morris kill for Trinity and a missed return by Meade County ended the five-set match that was a battle all the way.
"I'm overwhelmed, emotionally and physically right now, but I'm super proud of the girls," Trinity coach Daniel Morris said. "We just made school history, we've never made it to a volleyball regional championship before. That's one thing we've preached about is being history makers and we've been history makers all year long."
Trinity pushed its record to 27-5. A tough Meade County squad finished 21-10. Clara Rogers was a hitting force for Meade County, getting at least 12 kills in the match.
"We would have touches on her in the first set, but she was rolling and was hard to stop," Daniel Morris said.
Trinity rolled in the first set and had a 19-10 lead in the second before Meade County made a major stand and won the second set. Trinity was up 23-19 but Meade fought back and won with Katie Stout serving out the set for a 2-1 lead.
"Once the second and third set was going, we had the deer-in-the-headlight look, we started to panic a little bit," Daniel Morris said. "Eventually we settled and we were the aggressor."
Trinity survived 25-23 to end the fourth set, but it fell into a 5-1 hole in the winner-take-all fifth set. Meade County had match point in the fifth set, but Trinity closed with three straight points to move on to the regional championship match.
"We've had our backs against the wall all year long," Daniel Morris said. "We have a school of 100 (students) on the dot, we are the underdogs. No better opportunity than when we had our backs against the wall, match point, then to come out and score three more."
Bailey Millay had 11 digs for Trinity. Cassidy Morris had 26 kills, 19 digs. Abby Payne had 26 digs. Josie Aull had 59 assists, 15 digs. Georgia Howard had 20 digs. Hannah Nash had 24 kills. Taylor Pedley had 49 digs. Kenzie McDowell had eight kills.
