Playing in the 3rd Region Volleyball Tournament for the first time since 2011, the Lady Cougar volleyball team saw its season come to an end Tuesday evening in Greenville as the Owensboro Catholic Lady Aces beat them like a drum, 3-0 (25-13, 25-15, 25-12).
The Aces overwhelmed the Cougars behind the hitting and serving of junior Cassidy Towery and the hitting and blocking of junior Isabella Wright and senior Sarah Bemboom. Time after time, the hitting attempts of the Cougars were rejected at the net by the Catholic front line and turned into points for the Aces.
The start of the first set gave an excellent indicator of how the rest of the match would go. With the Cougars serving first, the Aces scored a rally point as Towery gently pushed a kill into an empty space in the Grayson County defense.
Towery then took the serve and the Aces reeled off five unanswered points to lead 6-0.
To their credit, the Cougars fought back. Trailing 6-8, sophomore Ella Robinson served an ace to pull her team to within a point of the lead at 7-8. The Aces responded by scoring the next six points and Grayson County was never closer than four points the rest of the way. At set-point, 24-13, junior setter Cecilia Clemons served an ace to give her team the first-set win.
Grayson County’s Chloe Cox put away a kill to start the second set and give her team a quick 1-0 lead, but that turned out to be their only lead of the set. The Cougars went into the middle portion of the set trailing by one point until a 5-0 Catholic run put distance between the two teams. Wright took the serve with a 22-15 lead and served out for the second-set win. Sophomore Lexi Miles put away a kill at set-point for the win.
An Aces hitting error gave the Cougars another 1-0 lead at the start of the third and final set, but Catholic responded by scoring 10 of the next 11 points to take command, and the Cougars were never close afterward.
The Lady Cougars closed out a fine season with a record of 20-8. The Aces (19-13) will move on to the second round of the tournament, where they will meet Breckinridge County (30-7) Wednesday evening.
By Don Brown, Local Sports
Reach Don at donbrown@k105.com
