Caldwell County’s girls picked a great time to play some of their best volleyball of the season.
The Lady Tigers won for the eighth straight match Tuesday night when they rallied to defeat Madisonville-North Hopkins 3-2 in the 7th District championship at the CAB gym in Princeton.
A month ago, Caldwell was 9-10 and had dropped eight of its previous 11 contests.
The Lady Tigers will now take a 17-10 record into next week’s 2nd Region tournament after outlasting Madisonville 20-25, 25-19, 19-25, 25-18, 15-9 in a five-set thriller for the district title.
Both teams will be in the regional field next week at Hopkins County Central. The draw for the region tourney is set for Friday morning.
Madisonville (16-19) was the No. 1 seed for the 7th District tourney after beating Caldwell twice during the regular season.
The Lady Maroons appeared to be in good shape in the final when they took two of the first three sets and led 16-13 in the fourth set.
However, Caldwell turned the match around with seven straight points — part of a 12-2 run that gave the Lady Tigers the fourth set.
Caldwell rode that momentum into the short fifth set, scoring the first three points and opening up a 5-1 lead.
Madisonville got to within 11-8, but the Lady Tigers scored four of the last five points to finish off the match.
Chevy McGowan had 12 kills, 21 digs and an ace while Med Thomas recorded 11 kills, a block and four digs for the Lady Tigers, who were appearing in a district championship match for the 23rd straight year. (Caldwell has 19 titles over that time, including the last three.)
Kylee White recorded 38 assists, 11 digs, two kills and two blocks for the Lady Tigers.
Laylay Shearer finished with seven kills, five blocks and a dig. Grace Watson totaled six kills and two digs.
Mycah Riddle tallied 21 digs, three kills and five aces. Troy Freeman added two kills, two blocks, three digs and an ace.
Maddie Cooper had 16 digs and two aces. Tink Clark had eight digs and an ace.
For Madisonville, Leah Moody had a big night with 22 kills, seven assists, three aces and two digs. Cadence Curry had 24 assists, three digs and an ace.
Sadie Kirk recorded 11 kills and a block. Bri Pettit had six kills and four blocks. Jeala Bottoms added four kills, a block and seven digs.
Carlee Sandidge had 21 digs and two aces. K.B. Sutton tallied three kills, an assist and a dig.
Lilly Gobin had two kills, a block and a dig. Mashyla McAdoo had a kill and four digs.
Caldwell now leads the all-time series with the Lady Maroons 44-14. However, Madisonville leads 9-5 over the last 14 matchups.
The Lady Tigers advanced to the championship match with a 3-0 win over Hopkins County Central on Monday.
Madisonville, as the top seed, drew a bye into the finals.
