Owensboro Catholic used a dominant fifth set to win a back-and-forth battle Friday, as the Lady Aces topped Campbell County 3-2 (25-27, 25-23, 23-25, 25-23, 15-8) in the first round of the volleyball state tournament.
The Lady Aces move on to Saturday’s quarterfinals, where they’ll play North Oldham at 12 p.m. CST. North Oldham beat Floyd Central 3-0 (25-12, 25-11, 25-8) in Friday’s first-round game.
Catholic head coach Brian Hardison said the Lady Aces relied on blocking and hitting to keep their season alive, and they got help from everyone on the floor.
“I always stress playing together and working together,” he said. “We got some really big hits there down the line. Right there at the beginning of the fifth set we went on a run that kind of set the pace. I was pretty comfortable after they did that. Everybody contributed.”
After a very even first four sets, Catholic pulled away early in the fifth to close out the match. A 6-1 run pushed their advantage to 8-3, and Campbell County was never able to close the gap.
Cassidy Towery set up match point with a kill, and the Lady Aces won the next point on her serve to secure the win.
Towery (10 kills, 9 digs, 6 aces, 3 blocks) was a key figure for Catholic, as was Belle Wright (10 kills, 10 digs, 3 blocks). Cecilia Clemens finished with 44 assists, adding six digs and five kills.
The senior trio has led the team all year, and Hardison was happy they could get at least one more win.
“It means a lot to my seniors,” Hardison said. “They fought all year long to get to this spot. Once again, they weren’t ready to go home.”
Other contributions came from Madeline Castlen (11 kills, 7 blocks), Cate Sights (12 kills, 3 digs) and Jenna Glenn (8 digs), Hadley Latham (3 digs, 3 assists) and Jayden Bickett (4 digs).
In the opening set, the Lady Aces slowly worked their way to a 21-14 advantage, but the Camels stormed back to take a late lead. Catholic was able to fight off three set points before an ace by Hope Russell ended the set in favor of Campbell County.
Catholic hardly trailed in the second set after jumping out to a 6-1 advantage. Campbell County’s biggest lead came at 16-13, but the Lady Aces scored the next eight points before Sights later closed out the frame with a kill.
The third set was a battle from start to finish, with a late lead slipping away from the Lady Aces. Cathlic led nearly the entire way and was up 23-21, but the Camels rattled off four straight points to go up two sets to one.
The teams nearly matched each other point-for-point in the fourth set, and Campbell County went ahead 23-22 with a chance to close out the match. Catholic won the next two two points off errors by the Camels before a kill by Clemens forced a tiebreaker set.
Hardison said he watched one set of North Oldham’s win Friday and thinks they will be a tough quarterfinal opponent.
“They’re pretty good and they’re big,” he said. “We’re going to have to be on our game. We just have to be quicker and have our block up.”
The quarterfinal winner will advance to the semifinal round at 7:30 p.m. Saturday. The championship match is set for 1 p.m. Sunday.
Stay up to date on all your local sports coverage by following @OwensboroSports on Twitter and by liking us on Facebook.
