Henderson County finds itself in a familiar position as the Lady Colonels will play for its 13th region title in 18 years following Wednesday’s semifinal win over Madisonville in four sets.
Henderson County won 25-14, 25-20, 23-25, 25-8 to secure its spot in Thursday’s semifinal. Madisonville, who became only the second region team to take a set from Henderson this season, ends its campaign with a 20-8 record.
The Lady Colonels led wire-to-wire in the first two sets that mirrored each other on the scoreboard. Henderson got out to 6-2 leads in both sets. Madisonville then cut the deficit to 6-5. Up 12-7 in both sets, Henderson put some distance between them and the Lady Maroons thanks to strong play at the net.
Henderson County used a 10-1 run midway through the first set to take a 21-11 advantage as Madisonville struggled with its serve-receive game.
The second set was closer but Madisonville never could get a tie or take the lead. They got as close as 15-13 and 21-19 but Henderson had an answer both times.
The first ties of the match came in the third set as the squads battled back and forth. There were 10 ties in the first 24 points with Madisonville leading by as many as three in the set.
Tied at 12-12, Henderson County took a 17-14 lead and seemed on its way to the sweep. However, Madisonville still had something left in the tank and battled back to tie the set at 18-18 and move out to a 24-20 advantage. Henderson scored three straight to make it interesting, but Madisonville closed out the set 25-23.
It was all Henderson in the fourth set as they jumped out to a 6-1 lead and stretched it to 14-2. The Lady Maroons would not get the deficit into single digits the rest of the set.
Region player of the year Jordan Troutman was again strong in facilitating the Lady Colonel offense with Hadley Wolfe and Keianna Alexander strong at the net.
While Henderson County’s roster features six seniors, Madisonville only has one and looks to enter the 2022 season as one of the region’s favorites.
Henderson County improved to 29-9 and will play in Thursday’s championship match.
