Monday was a true measuring stick game for the Todd County Central Rebels and Heritage Christian Academy Lady Warriors.
For Lady Rebels coach Steve Lyne, he was looking to see how his squad rebounded after a tough loss Saturday at the All A Classic region tournament that kept them from repeating as champs.
For HCA coach Grace Stewart, she was wanting to see if her young squad could get over the hump and put a complete match together.
In the end, it was Todd County Central that claimed the 25-19, 19-25, 25-14, 25-15 win over HCA at Rebel Gym.
The combination of Lynnlee Jones and Allyssa Wofford at the net proved to be too much for the Lady Warriors to contain.
Wofford had 14 kills and Jones added 13 for Todd Central, who got strong passing from Choloe Wills (25 assists) and Shelby (11 assists).
The Lady Rebels lost to Metcalfe County 25-23, 28-26 at Saturday’s All A Classic but the thoughts of a slow rebound Monday never occurred to Lyne.
“There weren’t many concerns. I knew that we’d kind of be making some changes and finding our line-up, so in that sense, I was excited about tonight and to just kind of get back on the court and get the girls going again,” he said.
Wofford had a pair of kills during a 5-0 first set advantage that saw the Lady Rebels move into a lead they wouldn’t relinquish. HCA got to within 17-15 on a Grace Cansler putaway, but Jones had an ace and two kills for the next three points, and Todd Central took the first set 25-19.
HCA fell behind 6-3 in the second set but battled back to tie the set at 10. Cansler had four kills and McKenzie McCarty had three consecutive aces as part of a 9-1 run that saw the Lady Warriors take control of the set.
Cansler finished with 13 kills for the Lady Warriors.
Todd Central never trailed in the match after HCA took the second set.
The Lady Rebels were able to limit HCA’s ability to rotate the court by using runs of 6-0, 5-0, and 5-0 in the third set to claim the 25-14 win.
The fourth set featured three ties before Todd gradually pulled away for the win.
Bralee Fowler had four blocks and four kills for the Lady Warriors who fell to 0-4 with their second straight four-set loss.
Afterward, Stewart said the communication wasn’t there for her team after taking that first set.
“They’re getting tired, and when they’re getting tired, they start standing and they stop talking,” Stewart said. “That plays a huge part in a win and a loss because we can’t afford to not communicate. It’s just the little things. Just mental errors, basically, because they’re young, and with each set, they’re improving, but it’s still too many errors to be able to win a whole match.”
Both teams have busy weeks ahead.
HCA will host Foundation Christian Academy Tuesday and play at University Heights Academy Thursday ahead of Saturday’s All A Classic region tournament at Fort Campbell.
Todd County Central (3-1) has a Tuesday district match at Russellville and a Thursday trip to Apollo before two matches Saturday in Owensboro against Whitesville Trinity and Owensboro Catholic.
“We have some things we need to work on in practice,” Lyne said. “I’m seeing some things where they need to work on transitioning, that kind of thing. There’s quite a bit of youth on the floor. We’ve only got two seniors, and I don’t like to use it as an excuse. But I see sometimes our volleyball IQ is not there in some areas so we’ve got to just keep working on those things.”
