Owensboro Catholic will make their return to the 3rd Region Championship after beating Ohio County 3-0. The defending regional champions will look to win back-to-back titles as they face Meade County.
The Lady Aces got to a slow start to begin the match, but they quickly found their rhythm on offense. It took some minor mistakes on defense before they began fending off most of what Ohio could throw at them. They took the first set 25-18.
OCHS did everything they wanted and more on offense as Meade had no counters for their aggressive attacks. Head coach Brian Hardison said that the team picked up the tempo and their passing made it easy to score.
“We started running up the tempo,” he said. “I told them that’s what we should’ve been doing all year long. We’ve gotten to the point that our passes are perfect. It allows us to hit better.”
To start the second set, OCHS raised the tempo right out of the gate and quickly had a commanding 10-1 lead. Ohio had many errors on defense dealing with Owensboro Catholics’ attacks. Ohio failed to gain their footing to make a comeback on offense because the Lady Aces defense were quick to recover after making some difficult digs, so they easily held off most attacks thrown their way. Leading the series 2-0 now, OCHS won the second set 25-13.
On defense, OCHS was solid and had no intention of letting Meade find a way back into the match. Hardison said that part of the grit and high effort on defense is because the older players aren’t ready to end their last seasons just yet.
“Bowling Green’s coach told me that my back line is insane,” he said. “I told him I agree. It just comes down to the fact they want it. I got four out of my five starting seniors on the floor at the beginning of the game. They’re not ready to go home.”
OCHS carried their momentum into the third set and quickly established a 10-4 lead. They went on to score five more consecutive points before Ohio were able to answer back. The power behind the hits from the Lady Aces were a big problem for Ohio as they often found themselves struggling to make the dig and keep the ball in play. Owensboro Catholic closed out the final set 25-11.
Going into the championship match, Hardison said the team’s morale and chemistry is at an all-time high. Before this match the team even got together to watch movies as a team to pass the time.
“Right after school their parents bring them food, we go down to the locker room and go through movies again,” he said. “We love Miracle, and they like Any Given Sunday, especially the big entrance speech. They like that more than anything. I’ve had teams in the past that thought it was stupid, but this team feeds off of it.”
Owensboro Catholic will play Meade County in hopes of winning their second regional title in a row. The championship match starts at 6 p.m. at Trinity High School.
