The Christian County Lady Colonels are headed back to the regional volleyball semifinals for the third straight year. Christian County opened fast and kept the pressure on high in their regional quarterfinal win over Livingston Central Monday night, taking the match in straight sets at Hopkins County Central High School.
The match was the first meeting between the two teams since 2012 and the first regional tournament meeting since the 2010 season.
The night got off to a tough start for the Lady Cardinals as they were 15 minutes late arriving in Mortons Gap, and the evening went quickly downhill from there.
Behind the play of Katie Cansler and Peyton Owens, Christian County got out to a quick 3-0 lead in the opening set. With the score at 5-2, the Lady Colonels ripped off five straight points to move the lead out to 10-2. A big part of the run was two powerful block-kills coming from Taylor Cantrell.
The lead reached as many as 11 points at 15-4 before the Lady Cardinals began to try and fight their way back into the set.
Livingston got some key plays from sophomore Jocelynn Morganson and freshman Kaydence Smith to close to within 16-10.
But, as had been many times this season, when the Lady Colonels needed momentum to swing, senior Kaidence Atwell came up with timely big plays. Atwell had a kill and a service ace to shut down the Livingston run and then got help from a couple of kills from the big swing of Katie Cansler as the Lady Colonels ran away to take the opening set 25-13.
Cansler finished the set with four kills. Taylor Cantrell had the two block-kills and Shiloh Baker added two service aces as Christian County went up one set to none.
With Cantrell, Cansler, and Ashlea Russell providing the spark, Christian County ran out to a quick 9-3 lead in the second set.
Jocelynn Morganson and Kaydence Smith again gave the Lady Cardinals a boost as they came back and closed to within 14-10 midway through the second. But that would be as close as the Livingston comeback effort could get. Katie Cansler, Taylor Cantrell, and Kiley Lambert took over at the net to close out the set and carry the Lady Colonels to the 25-15 win, taking a two set to none lead in the match.
Christian County scored the final six points of the set to get the win. Cansler had four kills for the second straight set. Lambert added two kills for the Lady Colonels.
Livingston Central took its only lead of the night as the third set got started, scoring the opening point of the set to take a 1-0 lead. But it was short-lived and the Lady Colonels were in the mood to get on the road and get home.
Christian County scored the next three points to go up 3-1 and, after the Lady Cardinals scored to trim the margin to 3-2, the bottom fell out on Livingston Central.
Getting strong play from Katie Cansler, Ashlea Russell, and Shiloh Baker, Christian County scored nine straight points to take a 12-2 lead, and from there it was just a matter of the final score as the Lady Colonels rolled on to a 25-6 win to complete the sweep.
Kaidence Atwell had three kills in the set for Christian County, and Katherine Wood helped the Lady Colonels close it out with a pair of service aces coming down the stretch of the set.
The Lady Colonels (20-16) now move on to Wednesday night’s first semifinal match, which will get underway at 5:30pm.
