Just days after winning the school’s first-ever 8th District championship, the Heritage Christian Academy Lady Warriors added to the narrative of a historic 2024 volleyball season. Heritage advanced to the 2nd Region tournament semifinals with the school’s first-ever win in a KHSAA regional tournament, sweeping past Livingston Central in straight sets Tuesday night at Hopkinsville High School.
The Lady Warriors got the win despite a pregame injury suffered by Katie Cansler that kept her out of action for the night.
Give the Lady Cardinals plenty of credit, they made the Lady Warriors work to get this straight-set win, which was the third over Livingston Central this season for HCA.
With Cansler out of the lineup, the Lady Warriors struggled a bit to find their stride against the Lady Cardinals.
Senior Mya Goodwin came out and got the Lady Warriors off to a big start. Behind three kills from Goodwin, HCA jumped out to a 10-1 lead and it looked as if it might be a quick night of work for the Lady Warriors.
Getting some big moments from Victoria Joiner and Chloe Doyle, Livingston Central would battle back to within 5 points on a couple of occasions but that would be as close as the Lady Cardinals could get as HCA took the set 25-18 to go up one set to none.
Mya Goodwin had a huge set with seven kills to lead the Lady Warrior attack.
HCA again got off to a good start in the second set, this time behind the efforts of Goodwin and freshman Grace Conley. The Lady Warriors ran out to a quick 7-3 lead to open the set. HCA hit a bit of a lull in the middle of the set and the Lady Cardinals pulled back to within two points at 15-13.
Step up, Grace Conley. The freshman had three kills and ignited a 4 point spurt that took the lead back out to 19-13. Jocelynn Morganson and Chloe Doyle came up with some big plays that brought Livingston to within 3 points, but again the Lady Warriors found the way to close out the set and took a 25-21 win to go up two sets to none.
The third set saw Livingston Central take a 4-2 lead early in the set. It was back and forth for a while with four ties and three lead changes in the first half of the set. With the set tied at 11-11, Makenzie McCarty came up to serve and had two aces as part of a 5-0 run that put HCA up 16-11. That was the turning point of the set as Livingston could get no closer than 3 points the rest of the set.
The Lady Warriors would go on to win the third 25-16 and take the match three sets to none.
Mya Goodwin had another huge night for the Lady Warriors with 17 kills. Grace Conley added 7.
Makenzie McCarty was outstanding at setting things up, finishing with 20 assists.
The win moves Heritage Christian to 22-5 on the season and gives them their first trip to the regional semifinals, where they will face Caldwell County Wednesday night.
HCA will enter Wednesday’s semifinal having won nine straight matches.
