44TH DISTRICT VOLLEYBALL: Lady Indians storm back to claim another title

Nathan Hutchinson, Richmond Register, Ky.
·2 min read

Oct. 19—BEREA — The Lady Indians (26-10) found themselves — rather unexpectedly — facing a sizable deficit in the first set of Tuesday's 44th District Tournament championship game.

Madison Southern took a 13-8 lead before Madison Central coach Janet Thacker called a timeout and delivered a simple, yet effective message.

"She just told us to take a breath, calm down and go back out there and play like the team we know we are," Central senior Lily Dobbins said.

They did just that.

The Lady Eagles (11-17) won the next two points, before Central seized the momentum.

The Lady Indians went on to out-score Southern 67-20 from that point on and rolled to a 3-0 victory and a second-straight district tournament title. Central won by scores of 25-19, 25-10 and 25-6.

Both teams move on to next week's 11th Region Tournament.

Match-ups, times and locations are yet to be determined.

Avery Rigney had 18 kills for Central. Ananiah Huguely had 11 kills and three blocks. Skylar Whitaker had six kills and three blocks, while Dobbins had 17 digs.

"We started to play like ourselves," said Central's Emma Carter, who had a team-best 16 assists. "We really stepped it up. (In the beginning), we kind of thought we would (just win) because we beat pretty easily in the regular season. We had to push to get the win."

The Lady Indians rolled to a 3-0 win over Southern last month in Richmond. They dropped just 28 points in that match, not allowing more than 13 in any set.

Southern pushed the Lady Indians this time, however — especially early.

An ace by Abby McMullin, and solid all-around play from Julia Bingham — including two aces and a block — put Southern up 15-8 in the first set.

"We definitely put up a better effort than we did last time," Southern Jeremy Grant said.

Some changes to the gameplan from the first match-up — and some extra energy on the court — certainly helped the Lady Eagles.

At least for a while.

"They realized we were getting the blocks. They got really smart about placing the ball and going off-speed a bit and we struggled to pick that stuff up," Grant said.

"I think we adjusted really well," Rigney said. "We started hitting around the blocks."

Bingham had seven digs, six kills, four aces and four blocks for Southern. Bre Dawes had 12 digs. Jordyn Walker had 11 digs and four assists. Reagan Burns had seven digs and three assists. Abby Dees had three digs, one kill and one block. Abby McMullin had five digs and one ace. Anna Seals had four digs and Campbelle Price had one kill.

Central has won five-straight matches against Southern.