With two straight 3rd Region Championships under its belt coming into this season, the Lady Panthers volleyball team is looking to be even stronger this year under some senior leadership.
Daviess County is coming off a dominant season in which they went 22-10 overall, finishing 16-1 in the region and 7-1 in district play. This helped them grab a 9th District Championship and 3rd Region Championship, before ultimately falling to Bowling Green in the first round of state.
Head Coach Tyla Bailey and company have a lot of experience returning from the team a year ago, as the Lady Panthers expect to rely on their upperclassmen to build on the successful past few years in 2022.
“We are fortunate to have a strong senior class returning with Adylan Ayer, Josie Newcom, Lexi
Owen, Sydney DeRossitt, Emma Rogers, Mary-Grayce Hill, Sydney Mills, Kayla Thomson,
Taylor Roberts, and Kayedon Mattingly,” Bailey said. “Each girl provides a different skill to our team, and are working really well together.”
Newcom was the Owensboro Times 2022 Volleyball Player of the Year a season ago, serving as a dominant force offensively as the team’s leader in kills. Paired with an assist machine in Owen—who just reached the 1,000 career-assists mark in their match with Meade County on Tuesday.
Along with this dynamic duo and the other aforementioned weapons Daviess County has, they have a number of newcomers. That includes Macie Edge, Lauren Jean, Rylan Westerfield, and Keleigh Payne and Bailey said that they are all players she expects to contribute at some point this season.
With a strong Lady Panthers core and plenty of reinforcements, they have gotten off to a decent start to the season. They were swept in their opening match with South Warren, but got a sweep of their own against Meade County to move to 1-1.
While they’re only a few games into the season and have a lot of room to grow in 2022, Bailey said that as long as they limit unforced errors and execute efficiently on offense they can make some damage in district and regional play once again.
“We expect to have another great season of DC Volleyball— grow stronger as a team, maintain
high energy, and do our best each match…” Bailey said. “After coming off of a strong season, I would really like to see us become more consistent on serve-receive and continue strengthening our defensive play.”
