Kennedy Venable puts Lubbock-Cooper volleyball in first region tourney since 2012
DIMMITT — Tears welled up in Dana Hill's eyes as she was greeted by her mom and dad, each sharing the emotion of their daughter on Tuesday night as they charged down the steps for a hug and a congratulatory high-five.
Players could be heard hollering "2012, now 2022," the words bouncing off the walls of the tunnel as they exited the court at Kenneth Cleveland Gymnasium, gold-ball trophy cradled like a baby.
It's been a while since the Lubbock-Cooper volleyball team could celebrate a trip to the region semifinals. The feat has only been accomplished one other time in team history, back in 2012. Athletic success is the standard at LCP, and the volleyball team wants to be included in that conversation.
The Lady Pirates officially put their names in the mix by outlasting Amarillo High 3-2 (20-25, 25-15, 25-21, 18-25, 15-12) in the Class 5A region quarterfinals to make the long-awaited return to the region tournament.
"The bar has been set really high," Hill said. "We've had some great teams, so we talked to our seniors. ... not just our seniors, but we talked to every single person on our team about leaving this program better than you found it. We felt good about our chances, even though we knew it was going to be a battle, and it was."
Lubbock-Cooper knew that Amarillo High would be keying on outside hitters Hope Douglass and D'Mya Hill, so they needed a counter attack.
Kennedy Venable proved to be the perfect foil to the Lady Sandies' plan.
"We stressed it this week about going to somebody other than D'Mya and Hope because if anybody scouts us, they know that those are our two bigs," Hill said, "so we harped on this week just about making sure our middles and our right sides were available every single time and (Venable) played a heckuva game."
As Amarillo head coach Mike Moffitt expected, Douglass and D'Mya Hill were the centerpieces to the LCP attack. What the Lady Sandies didn't take into account was the 5-foot-8 Venable having a breakout performance.
Entering Tuesday's region quarterfinal, Venable's season-high in kills was nine on 22 attacks, which came all the way back in early September. Against Amarillo, Venable produced 15 kills on 36 attempts, including some crucial points in the deciding fifth set.
Leading 12-11 in the final frame, Venable produced the last three points of the match, all on pure kills through the Lady Sandie defense, including the dagger for the final point.
"I just went and pushed myself to my fullest potential," Venable said. "I tried to find the open spot and just get points for the team."
Douglass (19 kills, three aces, four blocks) and D'Mya Hill (15 kills, three blocks) may have been the focus of the defense, but it was Venable that proved to be the invaluable asset.
"She really stepped up tonight," D'Mya Hill said of Venable. "She showed leadership tonight."
The Lady Pirates avenged last year's 3-1 loss to Amarillo in the region quarterfinals and will now take on Colleyville Heritage at 6 p.m. on Friday at Coronado. It's another notch in the belt for the program.
"We wanted to get here so bad," the LCP head coach said, "and not only just get here, we wanted to make sure that we went where no other team has gone at Lubbock-Cooper. We've gotten to this round a few times and always gotten beat, so we wanted to change the narrative of that."
Class 5A volleyball region quarterfinals
Lubbock-Cooper 3, Amarillo 2
Lubbock-Cooper 20 25 25 18 15
Amarillo 25 15 21 25 12
Lubbock-Cooper stats
Hitting — Hope Douglass 19 kills, D'Mya Hill 15, Kennedy Venable 15, Kirsten Hodges 3
Setting — Paige Rollins 27 assists, Rylee Robertson 17, Ava Hounshell 8
Serving — Douglass 3 aces, Robertson 3 aces
Blocks — Douglass 4, Hill 3
Digs — Hounshell 32, Robertson 11
Records — Lubbock-Cooper 37-5; Amarillo 33-10
This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Kennedy Venable puts Lubbock-Cooper volleyball in first region tourney since 2012
