When the Apollo E-gals dropped their season opener to district rival Owensboro in five sets, AHS coach MaryAnne Howard told her team to focus on the other district games because they weren’t out of contention for the top spot yet.
As of Tuesday evening, they still had a chance to take the top seed in the 9th District as they took down Owensboro Catholic 3-1 at AHS.
Howard said she didn’t want to overwhelm her team with worry about the instances that would need to occur from them to win the district’s regular season.
“We were really focused on the match itself because we knew if we took care of our side of the court and kept improving all season, that we could put ourselves in the position,” she said.
Apollo won the first two sets 25-19, 25-17 before the Lady Aces found life in the third game. OC then took the set 25-19 to force a fourth and despite a valiant effort from the away team, the E-gales shut the door 25-23 for the match victory.
With Daviess County sweeping Owensboro across town Tuesday, if the Lady Panthers were to beat Catholic in their upcoming district tilt, there would be a three-way tie for the top spot in the district.
“This year with the district, I couldn’t pick a team that I would prefer to play against because it seems like anybody could win on any given night,” Howard said.
After the E-gals opening loss, they then fell to 0-2 with a loss to Bowling Green. It was then that Apollo changed its tune and went on their current run that sits at five matches.
“After those first two losses, we really started having conversations with our team of we’ve got to improve in the areas we needed to improve,” she said. “Which was passing but also suring up simple mistakes and one thing that’s helped, we’ve gone on a streak but we’ve not been winning 3-0. We’ve actually been going the distance. Our team has really lacked experience of playing together and so the more we play, it seems like the more we’re starting to gel, the more we’re starting to cut down on mistakes. Playing volleyball is really just one thing that’s helped us kind of come together.”
Apollo plays at home Thursday against Warren East before hosting Ohio County and Graves County Saturday at AHS.
Howard said they’ve had one gameplan all year and they’re going to stick with it as the season goes on.
“From the beginning of the season, our goal has been improve and always be better when we leave the gym at the end of the night,” she said. “Always try to be better than when we came in. I think that’s one thing that we’ve been doing and I think that’s something in this stretch now in this part of the season, is something we’re going to continue to focus on so it can help get us ready for postseason play.”
Catholic falls to 1-4 on the year as it takes on Henderson County Saturday on the road.
Apollo 3, Owensboro Catholic 1
OCHS (1-4) 19 17 25 23–1
AHS (5-2) 25 25 19 25–3
OCHS: Madeline Castlen (16 kills, 5 blocks, 3 digs), Emily Christian (11 digs, 2 aces), Paige Miles (4 kills, 8 assists), Kennedy Murphy (2 kills, 10 assists, 5 digs), Cate Sights (11 kills), Leann Lyon (7 kills, 3 blocks, 3 digs), Lilly Farmer (14 assists, 2 digs), Allie Hamilton (4 kills), Jenna Glenn (17 digs), Delaney Flaherty (7 digs)
AHS: Havanah John (19 kills, 4 blocks), Aliyah Carwile (11 kills, 4 blocks), Brylee Rhodes (8 kills, 4 blocks), Tallie Satterfield (4 blocks, 3 blocks), Maddi Boswell (38 assists), Anslee Hopefulle (3 aces, 18 digs), Abby Spong (11 digs).
