Owensboro have been eliminated from their first 3rd Region volleyball tournament after losing 3-2 to Meade County in a close five-set match. Despite this loss, this marks the farthest the program has made it in the postseason.
With a spot in their first championship match on the line, Owensboro head coach Melissa Hibbs said she knew that this game would be a high intensity match.
“Going into this match, we knew it would be a championship-style match,” she said. “Both teams could have been in that championship match, we just unfortunately drew each other. We were going to push each other to the end and I think we did.”
The match started evenly as both teams didn’t let the other stray too far with the lead. Meade gained the upper hand with some difficult digs on offense and hard kills on offense to give them a 14-9 lead. The Lady Red Devils began to make more effective attacks on offense and began to claw their way back, but it was too late and Meade took the first set 25-17.
OHS opened the second set up determined to make up for lost ground. They raised their tempo and overwhelmed Meade until they had a 10-3 lead. After keeping the pressure on offense, they eventually held a comfortable 17-9 lead over Meade. Meade began to push back, but the Lady Red Devils held out to win the set 25-20 and tied the series at 1-1.
Both teams were warmed up by the third set and they went about point for point until Owensboro took a narrow lead at 13-10. Meade’s offense had some accurate hits into open space to bring the score back to a tie at 15-15. Neither team gave an inch as they continued to go point for point late into the set. OHS began to gain a lead, and the defense made big plays to make sure Meade couldn’t close the gap. They held out to win the set 25-10 and go ahead in the series 2-1.
Meade opened the fourth set with five straight points. The Lady Red Devils defense were slow to get their footing and Meade led 10-2. The offense slowly began to cut into the lead until they were only trailing by four at 15-11. Meade played some powerful and difficult hits that helped them pull away again at 21-15. Just when it looked like OHS was forcing their way back, Meade won the set 25-22 and forced a fifth set.
Offenses were on full display in the final set as both teams went back and forth at each other until a few key blocks gave Meade a 10-7 lead. Owensboro fought hard to close the gap on offense, but Meade won the final set 15-11.
OHS ended their season with a record of 22-12. Despite the season ending shorter than she would have liked, Hibbs said she is very proud of her team and felt that they all walked out of the match as champions because of what they’ve accomplished throughout the season.
“I told these girls in the locker room that they’re a championship caliber team given what type of people they are,” she said. “There’s a lot of teams that would’ve started the season 6-9 and laid down, died, and not progressed the way we did. They truly loved one another, and you could tell that they wanted this. We just continuously grew throughout the season, and I’m content. We’re leaving tonight champions even though we’re not in that championship tomorrow,” she said.
