Lady Cougars shutout Trinity 3-0; earn top seed in 11th District volleyball

laura-return
laura-return

The Lady Cougar volleyball team ended the season playing some of its best volleyball and they capped it off Thursday evening in the Cougar Den with a convincing 3-0 win over 11th District rival Whitesville Trinity.

The win earned Grayson County the number-one seed in the 11th District Tournament, which will begin October 8 at Edmonson County. The Lady Cougars (19-6) will face fourth-seeded Edmonson(8-19) in the opener, while Trinity (20-7) will face Butler County (10-9-1). If everything goes to form, the Lady Raiders and the Lady Cougars would face each other again in the final.

Grayson County came out fired up and ran away with the first set 25-12. Sophomore Ella Robinson had six kills in the opening set.

These two teams have battled fairly evenly over the past few years and you knew that Trinity would come out in the second set looking to even things up, and that’s the way it looked in the early going.

Trinity built a four-point advantage at 13-9, but that’s when the Lady Cougars kicked it into high gear, outscoring the Raiders 16-3 the rest of the way to take the second set 25-16. Trinity’s only points after that were rally points.

The big move during the run to the second-set win came with junior setter Alexis Hart serving. With the Lady Cougars trailing 12-14, Hart served seven straight points to give the Lady Cougars a 19-14 lead. Robinson had three kills in the run and sophomore Brieanna Boll had another.

With a set-point at 24-16, senior Olivia Lucas had a kill off the Trinity block to give her team a 2-0 lead.

The Lady Raiders had to be in shock, losing after seemingly being in control, but to their credit, they came out fired up in the third set and built and even bigger lead than they had in the second set. Behind the hitting of seniors Savannah Aull and Nina Wathan and junior Morgan Lindsey, the Lady Raiders built a seven-point advantage at 13-6, but once again the Lady Cougars began cranking it up.

Grayson County outscored the visitors 19-6 the rest of the set to win going away, 25-19. Tied at 16-16 and with senior Laura Higdon serving for Grayson County, two unforced Trinity errors gave the Lady Cougars an 18-16 lead, and Higdon followed up with an ace to make it 19-16 and the Lady Cougars never trailed again.

Trinity served at 22-19 and a Robinson kill gave the ball back to Grayson County. On the ensuing volley, Higdon came up with an impossible dig on a ball headed to the floor and Robinson put away another big kill to take it to match-point at 24-19. Robinson finished things off by winning a duel at the net and the Lady Cougars began their celebration.

In the JV match, the Lady Cougars sleepwalked through the first set to lose 6-21, but came roaring back in the final two sets to win 21-15 and 21-19 to take to match 2-1.

By Don Brown, Local Sports
Reach Don at donbrown@k105.com

Ella Robinson served an ace during the varsity match.
Setter Alexis Hart put a ball behind her to Brieanna Boll, who readied to deliver a kill.
Sophomore Bailey Richardson has been one of the steadiest players for the varsity with her ever-dependable serving and her solid play on the back line.