Henderson County has established itself as the Second Region volleyball favorite with just over a week until the postseason.
The Lady Colonels remained unbeaten against region teams with a straight set win at Heritage Christian Academy on Thursday.
Henderson County won six region titles in seven years from 2015 to 2021, but has not filled its trophy case with a region championship trophy in four years. They are looking to change that this year as they improved to 22-9.
Henderson County’s net prowess proved too much for the Lady Warriors (14-17) to overcome throughout the match.
The Lady Colonels, who came into the match averaging seven blocks a match, doubled that on Thursday with Kylee Lyons and Gabby Melvin putting up a block and three assists each.
Henderson led for most of the first set until HCA tied it at 14-14. The Lady Colonels used a 6-1 run to move ahead 20-15. An Allie Craft ace got the Lady Warriors to within 22-19, but Henderson held on for the 25-22 win.
HCA jumped ahead 9-4 in the second set until a Henderson County timeout set them straight. Consecutive Lady Colonel blocks out of the timeout, two straight kills by Lyons, and an HCA attack error tied the match at 9-9.
Emmy Sword served up four of her six aces during a 9-2 run that extended the Lady Colonels’ lead to 20-13.
Hadlee Hayes sparked a 9-2 HCA answer with three of her nine match kills to tie the set at 22.
The set remained tied at 23, 24, and 25 until Henderson took the 27-25 win.
Henderson County led wire to wire in the third set, building a 9-1 lead. HCA chipped away and drew to within 17-16, but the Lady Colonels put up three straight points and took the third set 25-19.
Lyons had nine kills, while Sword had eight kills and 17 digs, and Evangeline Loffland had seven kills and 19 digs.
Kamryn Raley had 18 assists, and Addi Kirtley added eight assists and 12 digs, and Ella Whitledge held down the back line with 35 digs.
The 66 points scored by the Lady Warriors in the three-set loss are the most since last season’s All A Classic region championship loss to Crittenden County.
Hayes, who was honored before the match for recently topping 1,000 career digs, added 12 more to her total.
Allie Craft had 17 digs, and Bralee Fowler added five kills and 16 digs.
Taylor Barbee had seven kills and eight digs, and Makenzie McCarty had three kills and 18 assists, and 14 digs.
Charity Chambers, the lone HCA senior playing her final match on Eldridge Rogers Court, had 12 digs for the Lady Warriors.
Heritage Christian Academy, the defending region champs, fell to 10-12 against region opposition this season and finished the regular season 6-3 on their home floor. They are done until the 8th District Tournament begins a week from Monday.
Henderson County ended a four-match losing streak with the win. They have matches scheduled with Madisonville on Tuesday and at Crittenden County next Thursday.
