After struggling to garner wins over the weekend at the Apollo Summer Slam Down, Madisonville-North Hopkins responded on Tuesday with a straight-set win over district rival Caldwell County.
The Lady Maroons took all three sets by identical 25-20 scores.
“They fought. They fought for every point,” said Lady Maroons coach Amanda Cole. “That’s the biggest thing that we have been drilling into them — every point matters, and to fight for it all. They played really well as a team, they talked, they communicated. They just had the no quit attitude, and that’s what it takes.”
Lilly Gobin had eight kills, while Leah Moody had seven aces and five kills. She and K.B. Sutton also had 14 digs apiece. Madisonville had 11 aces in the contest.
It was a nice bounce back for the Lady Maroons (3-7), who dropped five of six matches at Apollo over the weekend.
“We were changing some rotations, and they were learning some new rotations. But we also didn’t have that chemistry and that grind this weekend,” Cole said. “I think they just kind of let all the errors get the best of them. They came out today ready to fight hard and take the win.”
Caldwell County (6-4) dropped its second straight road match and, unlike Madisonville, didn’t play over the holiday weekend.
“I think today we were just a little flat, so I told the girls it’s not just one point, but it was a good chunk of the point, so things just weren’t as crisp as they have been.” Caldwell coach Emily Oliver said. “I told them everybody’s going to have games like that, and so we can’t dwell on it. We’ve got to learn from what happened today.”
Med Thomas had five kills for the Lady Tigers, with Alaiyaa Shearer, Mycah Riddle, and Troy Freeman each contributing four. Kylee White added 23 assists, and Riddle had 20 digs.
However, Oliver, the former Lady Tiger in her first season as head coach, said she has seen some growth from her squad over the past six weeks, which isn’t indicative of how they played on Tuesday.
“We have learned to be a little smarter (than at July’s Bluegrass State Games) instead of just kind of going up and swinging or sending it different places. We’ve been a lot crisper and learning how to make that ball go down quicker and not just be floating it for the girls on the other side to be able to come up underneath it,” she said.
Caldwell County will play Heritage Christian Academy on Friday in an opening round match of the Second Region All A Classic.
Madisonville, however, will see HCA before then on Thursday when the teams meet up in Hopkinsville. The Lady Maroons opened the season with a four-set win over the Lady Warriors.
Cole hopes her team can continue to make strides ahead of a busy week on the court.
“The mental aspect and overcoming errors have been huge for us. We have come a long way, and I mean, it’s still a work in progress, but I think a lot of teams have that right now.”
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