For the first time in school history, the Crittenden County Lady Rockets have reached the 2nd Region volleyball tournament championship match.
Crittenden upended Christian County in four sets, 25-19, 25-22, 18-25, 25-22 in Wednesday’s semifinals at the CAB gym in Princeton.
The Lady Rockets will face region favorite University Heights Academy in Thursday’s 6 p.m championship contest. The Lady Blazers, the 8th District champions, advanced with a straight set win over Henderson County, 25-13, 25-10, 25-18.
Crittenden (17-13), the 5th District champion, got off to a hot start in the semifinals, taking the first two sets from Christian, which had a marathon five-set match against Caldwell County the night before in the late contest in the first round.
The Lady Rockets, meanwhile, handled Union County in three sets in their opening-round matchup Tuesday.
Crittenden looked like it might sweep Christian as well, running out to an 8-1 lead in the third set.
However, Christian (20-12) rallied to get back in the match, tying things at 11-11, then taking the lead for good on back-to-back kills by Skylar Kirby that gave the Lady Colonels a 14-12 advantage.
Christian came from behind again in the fourth set after trailing early to go up 21-19 in a bid to get the match to a fifth set. But Crittenden won six of the next seven points to finish off its semifinal win.
Katie Perryman and Carly Porter each had 10 kills to pace the Lady Rocket attack while Brooke Winstead had eight kills. Porter and Winstead had three blocks apiece while Perryman had two.
Riley Smith had 20 assists, four kills and 13 digs for Crittenden. Jaylee Champion had 15 digs, Hannah Mott had three kills and nine digs, Payton Hall had three kills and a block, and Riley Kirby had eight digs.
For Christian County, Camryn Armstrong had seven kills, four blocks and three aces while Rylee Owens had six kills and 14 digs.
Peyton Owens had 15 assists, nine digs and four aces. Skylar Kirby recorded five kills, two blocks, four digs and three aces.
Anaysia Bagwell added four kills and two blocks along with seven digs. Ashlea Russell tallied three kills, six digs, eights assists and four aces.
Emma Webster had three kills and two digs. Kaidence Atwell had two kills and a block.
Shiloh Baker had nine digs while Alaina Lee recorded seven digs. Aaliyah Bacon had three digs.
Crittenden had lost to Christian twice during the regular season.
