It was just the right way to say thank you to the seniors. On the night they honored Cadence Curry, Leah Moody, Brianna Petit, and Katelyn Jones, the Madisonville-North Hopkins Lady Maroons closed out the volleyball regular season by winning for the fourth time in their last five outings, taking down University Heights Academy 3-1.
Madisonville jumped out to a quick 5-1 lead in the opening set. Led by the play of Niyona Brown and Ava Gray Crawford, UHA battled back and got as close as one at 9-8.
Holding an 11-10 lead, the Lady Maroons went on a 7-1 run to push the lead back out to 18-11. Lilly Gobin and Leah Moody helped ignite the Madisonville run. UHA would close late to within 21-18, but the Lady Maroons were able to hold on for a 25-20 win to go up one set to none.
The second set opened with neither team able to get control of the set. The set was tied 9 times in the first half of the set. With the score tied at 10-10, University Heights got on a roll and grabbed the momentum in the set. The play of Niyona Brown was a big part of the Lady Blazers getting out to a 16-10 lead. Brown would end the night with six total kills.
Madisonville’s Mashyla McAdoo got rolling on the service line and helped bring the Lady Maroons to within two points but that would be as close as they could get as the Lady Blazers took the set 25-22 to even the match at one set each.
The third set opened with the two teams trading points. With the score knotted up at 6-6, the Lady Maroons went on a 12-1 run to get control of the set at 18-7. Mashyla McAdoo had three service aces during the run. Madisonville also got big plays from Sadie Kirk. UHA would get no closer than five points the rest of the set as the Lady Maroons won the third 25-18 to go up two sets to one.
Leah Moody opened the fourth set with a strong start that included three kills and a service ace as the Lady Maroons took a 10-6 lead. Mashyla McAdoo added two service aces during the spurt.
UHA closed to within 11-9, but then the Lady Maroons dropped the final hammer. Leah Moody and Sadie Kirk took over at the net as the Lady Maroons outscored UHA 10-2 to go up 21-11. Madisonville would go on to take the set 25-12 to close out the match at three sets to one.
With the win, Madisonville-North Hopkins closes out the regular season at 16-18. The Lady Maroons will play Tuesday night in the championship match of the 7th District tournament.
UHA drops to 11-19. The Lady Blazers will wrap up the season Saturday in Owensboro, taking on Apollo and Meade County.
