Grayson County’s Lady Cougar volleyball team improved its modest win streak to three games and six of its last eight Thursday evening in the Cougar Den with a straight-set victory over the much improved Butler County Lady Bears, 25-14, 25-21, 25-15.
In earlier games, the JV girls also won in straight sets, 21-11, 21-7, but the freshman girls went down in split sets, 21-18, 19-21, 8-21.
VARSITY MATCH
Since there has been volleyball in the 12th District, one thing could always be counted on; when you played Butler County, you were assured of a win. They were the doormats for just about everyone they played.
That can no longer be said of this squad. If you draw them in the 12th District Tournament, you are going to have a fight on your hands and you had better come to play. They are a team with some young talent that should only improve with age.
Though the Lady Cougars jumped out to an early lead, the Lady Bears battled back to lead by as many as four points, 13-9, before Grayson County resumed control.
Trailing 10-14, senior libero Laura Higdon took the serve and before she was done, the Lady Cougars had scored 10 straight points and had moved to set-point at 20-14. Higdon served four aces, and Ella Robinson had two kills during the run.
After a Higdon service error gave the ball back to the Lady Bears, they returned the favor by serving a ball into the net to give Grayson County the first-set win. The second set was close from the get-go. The Lady Bears led in the early going, but with Alexis Hart serving, the Lady Cougars scored four straight to grab a 9-6 lead.
The Lady Cougars never trailed after that, but Butler stayed close the rest of the way. A four-point run gave the Lady Cougars their largest lead of the set, seven points at 16-9, but the Lady Bears responded with a 6-0 run to pull back to within a point of the lead, 16-15. They later tied the game at 17-17 before the Lady Cougars went back on top.
Grayson’s serve on set-point, 24-19 went wide to give the ball back to Butler County. The Bears’ Delaina Flener served an ace, but her next serve went long to give the second set to the Lady Cougars.
The third set was close at the start, with the Lady Bears leading early on, but the Lady Cougars came back to take a lead, then kept expanding it. Leading 23-15, sophomore Kenzie Skaggs ripped a kill to take it to match-point, then followed that with a kill off the Butler County block to finish the win.
JV MATCH
The JV girls never trailed in this match. They led early in the first set and steadily pulled away to win easily. In the second set, the Lady Bears stayed close in the early going until junior Maddie Duvall took the serve with the set tied at 6-6. Duvall then served 14 straight points, including eight aces, to bring about a match-point, 20-6.
The pressure to finish things off must have been too great as Duvall’s next serve was into the net. She came off the court laughing and admonishing herself.
She needn’t have worried, though, as the ensuing Lady Bear serve was in the net to give Grayson County the win.
FRESHMAN MATCH
The freshman girls led most of the first set only to fall behind toward the end. They came back and to take a lead and had a set-point at 20-18 when Allie Dotson pushed a ball to the back line for a kill to take the first set.
A young group of Lady Bears, including Flener, Autumn Gidcumb and Abby Dockery then began dominating play. Gidcumb served eight straight points, including two aces, at the start that gave her team a 9-3 lead.
The Lady Bears pushed their lead to 10 points, 17-7 before the Lady Cougars came back to take a 19-18 lead. But when the Lady Bears got the ball back, Cougar hitting errors gave the win to the visitors.
The third set was a runaway for Butler County after Gidcumb, who also plays on the varsity, reeled off nine aces in a 12-0 run. Grayson County was never closer than eight points as the visitors eased to the win.
By Don Brown, Local Sports
Reach Don at donbrown@k105.com
