The first-ever trip to the All A Classic state volleyball tournament for Heritage Christian Academy did not quite turn out as well as the Lady Warriors had hoped it would. HCA was eliminated from the bronze bracket of the event in the quarterfinals, losing to Eminence, and finishing their trip to Owensboro for the weekend.
The Lady Warriors began their day with the final match of pool play as they took on the Raceland Lady Rams. Raceland had split their matches Friday night, losing to Knott County Central and then picking up a three-set win over Williamsburg.
The first set was back and forth early until reaching 13-11. At that point, the Lady Rams ripped off 5 straight points to go up 18-11. From their Raceland rolled on to win the opening set 25-15 to go up one set to none.
HCA started hot in the second set, running out to a quick 5-1 lead. However, the Lady Rams fought back and got to within a point at 5-4, 6-5, 7-6, 8-7, and 9-8. Raceland pulled even at 10-10 and then went on to take a 14-10 lead.
The Lady Warriors battled back and got within a point at 14-13, 17-16, and 18-17, but could never pull back even with the Lady Rams as they pulled away to take the set 25-18 and the match two sets to none.
With the three losses in pool play, that placed Heritage Christian in the bronze bracket with their quarterfinal matchup against Eminence. The Lady Warriors from Northern Kentucky had gone 1-2 in their pool, beating Bethlehem and then dropping matches to Holy Cross and Beechwood.
The first set saw the teams go back and forth early on, with the match tied at 6-6. Eminence then went on a 7-1 run to get out to a 13-7 lead. With HCA having problems contending with the big hitters up front for Eminence, the northern Lady Warriors were able to stretch the lead out to 23-11.
HCA made a bit of a run late in the set, but Eminence held on to win 25-18 and go up one set to none.
Eminence opened the second set by taking an early 5-3 lead, which resulted in a Heritage Christian timeout. Coming out of the timeout, the lead grew to 8-3 before HCA was able to break the run for Eminence.
Eminence continued to slowly try and pull away from the Lady Warriors, extending the lead to 13-7 and prompting another time out for Heritage Christian. But by that time, momentum was too firmly entrenched on the other side of the net, and Eminence pulled out to take the set 25–16 and the match two sets to none.
HCA now heads back home to resume the regular season on Monday when the Lady Warriors host McLean County.
All A state tournament coverage is presented by:
