Owensboro Catholic was able to make some adjustments throughout the match to force a fifth set and help them come away with their first 9th District Championship since 2019, spoiling the Lady Panthers three-peat with the 3-2 victory (25-16, 16-25, 16-25, 25-19, 15-11).
Both teams traded points back and forth in the opening set, with Daviess County the first to grab a two-point lead at 6-4. But the Lady Aces were able to grab the lead at 9-8, getting two more for a 3-0 run after a timeout.
Owensboro Catholic continued to build on their lead, going up 17-14 thanks to some serve and receive errors by the Lady Panthers. Daviess County took a timeout trailing at 21-15, but they were never able to recover as junior Blair Riney continued her strong play in the first set and helped the Lady Aces to a 25-17 win.
Head Coach Brian Hardison knew they needed Riney at her best to help Owensboro Catholic succeed, so he told her to take control of the game and she did just that early on.
“I said Blair, ‘own the floor,’” Hardison said. “She said what does that mean and I said ‘it means nothing stops you.’ She was hitting well. She went after the ball like she wasn’t scared and she didn’t care what the block was.”
The Lady Panthers were able to bounce back though to start the second set, as a kill by junior Josie Newcom sparked a 3-0 run to take an 8-5 lead. Owensboro Catholic took a timeout down 10-6 and Hardison’s message must’ve clicked, as a couple of big kills by sophomore Olivia Castlen helped them cut their deficit to 11-10.
But it was then that Daviess County caught fire, grabbing three straight before a pair of momentous blocks by senior Kayedon Mattingly gave them a 16-10 lead. The Lady Aces were able to stop the run at 7-0, but the Lady Panthers had all momentum and grabbed the set 25-16 to even things up at 1-1.
Daviess County stayed hot to start the third set, opening it up with a 5-0 run. Owensboro Catholic was able to climb its way back to even though, as a kill from sophomore Tyranada Stuart made it 11-11.
The Lady Panthers reclaimed the lead at 15-13 thanks to a violation on the Lady Aces, but Owensboro Catholic immediately responded to make it 15-14 and keep the back and forth affair going in the middle of the set. But Daviess County then earned a quick 3-0 run, taking an 18-14 lead and forcing a Lady Aces timeout.
Owensboro Catholic was only able to score two more points in the set, as the Lady Panthers won 25-16 again to take a 2-1 lead into the fourth set.
The Lady Aces didn’t get off to a much better start in the fourth set, as a serving error gave Daviess County the first point. After a kill by the Lady Panthers though, Owensboro Catholic bounced back with a 4-0 run to earn a 4-2 lead and some momentum as Daviess County took a timeout.
The Lady Aces continued to build their lead, going up 11-6 before the Lady Panthers tried to claw their way back into the set. The two teams traded points back and forth, but Owensboro Catholic did a good job of not letting the Lady Panthers get big runs en route to a 19-16 lead.
Daviess County was never able to close the gap, as a kill by Riney gave the Lady Aces a 25-19 win and forced a fifth set to decide the 9th District Championship.
Senior Emma Rogers started the fifth set off with a serving ace, putting the Lady Panthers up 1-0. Owensboro Catholic responded with a quick 3-0 run, surrendering and earning one more point afterwards to take a 4-2 lead and force a timeout. The Lady Aces built their lead to 9-4, but slowly and surely Daviess County began to close the gap.
Trailing 11-8 the Lady Panthers got a point on a receiving error by Owensboro Catholic, then two more points on a block by Mattingly and a kill by senior Mary Grayce Hill after a timeout evened things up at 11-11. This led to a Lady Aces timeout, where Hardison told his team to stay true to their game.
“Basically what we said [before the game], don’t beat yourself,” Hardison said. “Go out here and go after it point for point. I said ‘guys, we protect our floor. Don’t let anything hit our floor, but don’t attack them. Attack their floor, because that’s the only way you’re going to score.’”
Owensboro Catholic heard him loud and clear, taking a 12-11 lead on a serving error and capitalizing on the misfortune for the Lady Panthers. The error sparked a 4-0 run for the Lady Aces, as they were able to best Daviess County 15-11 to secure the 3-2 9th District Championship win.
“I’m going to be honest, I thought both teams played extremely well…” Hardison said. “Everybody contributed. It was just fun to watch them… I’m super proud of these young ladies. We set out a gameplan and they went with it.”
The Lady Aces had a well-balanced attack offensively, with Riney (18), Castlen (13), Stuart (12), senior Abigail Williams (12) and sophomore Jaiden Grant all finishing in double figures in kills. Sophomore Kennedy Murphy tallied a whopping 66 assists on the night, as she and Grant were key factors in swinging momentum back Owensboro Catholic’s way after Mattingly’s ability to block kills slowed them down halfway through the match.
“[I told them to] stay away from her,” Hardison said. “I told Kennedy whenever Lexi and Mattingly are together, stay away from that side of the net. I said go with your mismatch and Jaiden Grant, oh my gosh. She was on fire… I think in the fourth set she was the deciding factor.”
Defensively senior Emily Christian led the way with 22 digs, while Riney had 20 and junior Karson Tipmore finished with 11. Riney’s plays in every facet of the game was crucial for the Lady Aces in the win and she kept it plain and simple when asked what her mindset was coming into the game.
“I just knew that I needed to get the job done and win this match for my team,” Riney said.
Riney and her teammates said that playing with energy was a key factor in the win, something Murphy said they decided early on after getting rid of some nerves. Owensboro Catholic also had extra motivation to play for their seniors—especially Paige Miles— who Riney and Murphy said has still contributed to her team’s success however she can despite being sidelined for all but four games this season because of a leg injury.
“This is really big for her,” Riney said. “We were playing for her really.”
“She’s been really helpful,” Murphy said. “She comes to all of our practices, she helps us run plays and she sees the court and tells us what’s open. She’s very helpful.”
The 9th District Championship is the first since 2019 for Hardison and the Lady Aces, but this one feels just a little more special with Hardison’s son Blake joining him as an assistant coach this season. He would be remiss if he didn’t tip his cap to his son, saying that having Blake alongside him has really helped Owensboro Catholic this season.
“Having Blake with me is a huge help,” Hardison said. “He’s like the new shiny toy. We coach really well together. He can basically say the same thing I say, but they hear him. I think we really executed the gameplan.”
Now the Lady Aces will look to grab their first 3rd Region Championship since 2019 and Murphy and Riney said as long as they continue to work hard everyday and stick together as a team, they can continue to have a strong postseason run.
“I think we just need to keep practicing how we’ve been practicing,” Murphy said. “We’ve been going hard at practice and I think we just need to keep it up.”
On the other hand, Daviess County fell just short of their third straight 9th District Championship and now sit at 18-11 overall going into the 3rd Region Tournament. Following the game Head Coach Tyla Bailey said it was the little things that added up in the loss for the Lady Panthers, something that they will need to rectify going forward.
“Just limiting the unforced silly mistakes,” Bailey said. “We missed several serves and just silly things that totally could’ve been avoided. Then just being more consistent and working together as a unit [will be key].”
Hoping to defend their 2020 and 2021 Third Region Championships, Bailey and company will look to use this game as a learning tool to improve and have the chance to still bring some hardware back to Daviess County High School.
“We just talked in the locker room about how it’s definitely motivation to get better,” Bailey said. “The question was asked, ‘what can we learn from this?’ I think we’re all on board in moving forward knowing that in region, we’re still in it and we’re still alive. So we’ll go into it hungry and use this as a learning opportunity.”
