The Lady Red Devils continue to make history as they advance to their first 3rd Region semifinal round after beating Grayson County 3-1.
After allowing three points to start the match, Owensboro found their footing on offense and kept the score close at 10-9 in favor of Grayson. The Lady Red Devils upped the pressure and secured a four-point lead at 17-13. The Cougars attempted to mount a comeback with their offense bringing the score back to a tie at 18-18. After going about point for point, OHS took the set 25-22.
Both teams continued to hold down their respective sides of the court defensively to start the second set. Neither team could get too far ahead of the other as OHS had a three-point lead, but Grayson forced some errors that got them a 10-9 lead. The Cougars began to pull away with their lead, but the Lady Red Devils stayed sharp on offense and brought it back within two at 18-16. Miscommunication among OHS saw them give away a few points that led to the Cougars winning the set 25-19.
With the series tied at 1-1, Owensboro scored four straight points to start the third set off. They kept control of the set with an 11-4 lead. They dominated the rest of the set and won 25-12 to take the lead in the series 2-1. The defense was a key factor in taking the lead in the series, and head coach Melissa Hibbs said that leaders such as Addie Travis helped the team get better as the game progressed.
“I think our front row did a great job setting the block, and that allowed us to pick up our defense throughout the match,” she said. “I thought we just kept getting better throughout the match. Addie has been a strong leader for us, and a lot of her defense leads to offense for us. She’s more than just a player. She’s a leader, and she gets the rest of the players going. They fed off of her, and we had our seniors step up as leaders as well. They did a great job of feeding off of one another, but Addie did a great job setting our block tonight.”
The fourth set started out as evenly as the first two with neither team gaining a clear edge over the other at 10-10. Owensboro began to gain a lead with some aggressive attacks, but Grayson brought it back within one at 16-15. OHS gathered the last bit of momentum on offense that they needed to close out the set at 25-20 and the match 3-1.
Owensboro advances to the semifinals and will play Meade County. Hibbs said that both teams have grown since they last played each other, but she has a lot of faith in her team.
“We played Meade in our very first match,” she said. “We both have grown a lot since that match. I’ll go home and we’re going to watch some film. I think we’ll be ready to compete. I think coming out we truly do feel confident against the teams in the region all because of the growth we’ve seen throughout the season. We’re proud of ourselves, but we said before getting here that we didn’t want to settle with just getting to the region tournament, we wanted to come and compete. We want to be here Thursday night not as a spectator but competing.”
