Getting some unbelievable play from senior libero, Laura Higdon, in the back row, the Lady Cougar volleyball team took a straight-set victory, 25-9, 25-20, 25-23, over the Owensboro Red Devils Thursday evening in Owensboro.
The JV Lady Cougars also earned a straight set victory, 21-11, 26-24.
VARSITY MATCH
In volleyball, the players who occupy the back row often get overlooked because their job is to get the ball to the front row, where the setters set up the hitters, who more often than not get all the headlines.
The libero is always in the back row, given that job because she is exceptional at returning serves and kill attempts from the other team. Thursday night, Higdon did her job in an exceptional manner. Time after time she made incredible digs to thwart both serves and power shots from the Owensboro hitters.
Many times, cheers from the Red Devil supporters turned to groans as big hits from their front row were turned around by the Cougar libero. Perhaps even more importantly, her digs were turned into accurate passes to the front row setters, Alexis Hart and Brieanna Boll, who then triggered the Cougar offense.
The first set was all Grayson County as the Red Devils seemed out of synch. Leading 4-1, Hart served six straight points to give the Cougars a 10-1 lead and the Red Devils never got closer.
Owensboro seemed to get their act together in the second set, pulling out to an early 5-1 lead, but the Cougars began crawling back into the game after that. They took their first lead of the set at 16-15.
The score was tied twice after that, but Boll served four straight points, including a pair of aces, that took the score to 23-18 and the die was cast.
The final set was a battle from the start. The Red Devils held the lead in the early going. Trailing 7-9, sophomore Kenzie Skaggs served seven points to give control back to Grayson County. Olivia Lucas had a spectacular kill to start the run, and Skaggs added a couple of aces during the run that gave the Cougars a five-point advantage, 14-9.
The Red Devils pulled back to within a point of the lead five times after that, but could never edge past the Cougars. Sophomore Ella Robinson put together back-to-back kills that gave the Cougars a four-point lead, 23-19, but the Devils came back to tie the game 23-23.
Robinson then hit a ball into the Owensboro blockers that went toward the sidelines. After the officials had a discussion with the linemen, it was determined the blocked hit had gone out of bounds, giving the ball back to the Cougars with a match-point, 24-23.
Lucas added one final kill, and the Cougars had the win.
JV MATCH
The Cougars held the lead in the early going of the first set, but five straight Red Devil points, including two aces from eighth-grader Mia Covington, gave the Devils an 8-10 lead.
Sophomore Chloe Cox ended the Devil run with a kill, giving the serve to Katie Skaggs at 9-10. The lefty then served eight straight points, including four aces to give her team an insurmountable, 17-10 lead. Sophomore libero Lexi Brown put away a kill on set-point to give the first set to the Cougars.
The second set was a thing of beauty, with the two teams battling on equal footing. Grayson County trailed once, 0-1 before grabbing a slim lead. A rally-point and a couple of Owensboro hitting errors saw the Cougars take their largest lead at 15-10, but the Devils would not quit.
The host team came back to retake the lead at 18-19, but a hitting error gave the ball back to the Cougars at 19-19. Skaggs served an ace to give the Cougars a match-point at 20-19 but a Cougar error sent the game into overtime.
The Devils served set-point twice, at 21-22, and 22-23, but the Cougars staved them off each time. The Cougars had match-point at 24-23, but the Red Devils got a kill to extend the match. Finally, with the Cougars at match-point again, the officials whistled the Devils for a double-hit and the match went to Grayson County.
By Don Brown, Local Sports
Reach Don at donbrown@k105.com
