The Fort Campbell Lady Falcons had made some history Monday night as they picked up a district tournament win for the first time since 2010 in their straight-set opening round win over the Hopkinsville Lady Tigers. History though would not repeat itself Tuesday night in the district semifinals against highly-touted University Heights Academy.
The Lady Blazers did what they needed to do to pick up their 32nd win of the season and advance to the district championship match with a straight-set win over Fort Campbell 25-12, 25-8, and 25-18.
UHA set the tone very early in the match. The Lady Blazers scored the first four points of the night on two kills from Julia Thomas and two service aces from Sarah Peebles. The Lady Blazers continued to extend the lead throughout the set as they took the 25-12 win to go up one set to none. Julia Thomas was a force in the set, coming up with five kills and one assist.
The second set saw the Lady Blazers settle things early. UHA jumped out to an 8-1 lead behind strong play from Claire Chewning, Sarah Peebles, and Chayse Gilliland. The Lady Blazers would also finish the set strong, scoring the final eight points of the set to take the 25-8 win and go up two sets to none. Claire Chewning had four aces and Chayse Gilliand two kills over the final eight points of the set. Gilliland had four kills total in the set as did Julia Thomas.
It would have been easy for the Fort Campbell Lady Falcons at that point to have just let it play out, but to their credit, the Lady Falcons refused to quit playing and made the Lady Blazers finish it out. Fort Campbell had its best set of the night with big plays from Elinor Arnold, Brielle Hart, and Amanda Kalili-Liusa, but the Lady Blazers simply had too much firepower on the floor.
With Chayse Gilliland, Julia Thomas, and Claire Chewning leading the way, UHA turned a 12-8 lead into a 17-8 margin, only to see the Lady Falcons fight back to within 20-17. But that would be the end of any comeback as the Lady Blazers finished scoring five of the last six points to close out the match with a 25-18 win.
Julia Thomas added five more kills in the set giving her 14 for the night for UHA. Chayse Gilliand had three kills in the set. Claire Chewning added three kills and two service aces.
Fort Campbell’s Elinor Arnold, who at times dominated the Lady Falcons match against Hopkinsville, was taken out of the contest against University Heights as the Lady Blazers did not let her get wound up, limiting her to two kills and a block.
Fort Campbell’s season comes to an end with a record of 3-19.
UHA improves to 32-2 and now moves on to Thursday night’s district championship match against Christian County. That match will start at 6 pm at Heritage Christian Academy.
