Two of the top volleyball teams in Region 1 and Region 2 battled through a 5-set match Tuesday. Christian Fellowship hosted Madisonville-North Hopkins, the two schools meeting for the 21st time in 20 years. Since 2002, the Lady Eagles lead the overall series against the Lady Maroons 14-6 but the last two times the two teams played in 2020, Madisonville won 3-1 and 3-0.
Christian Fellowship lost 3-2 to Madisonville (25-15, 25-20, 25-27, 26-28, 15-8) but what looked like a quick 3-set win turned very different midway through the third and decisive set for the Lady Maroons with CFS battling back to win the next two sets to tie the match up at 2-2 and take it to the fifth set tiebreaker.
In set one, a kill by Lillian Burnett pulled the Lady Eagles to within two points at 11-9 but Madisonville would go on to stretch the lead to 21-13 and take the first set win 25-15, finishing out the win on a kill by Kaitlyn Orange.
Tied 5-5 in the second set, Madisonville stretched out their lead to 13-7 behind good hard serving. CFS scored the next three points, led off on a kill from Cori Hood to cut the Madisonville lead to 13-10. The Lady Maroons stretched it back out to an 8-point lead at 21-13 but the Lady Eagles kept fighting back on several nice kills from Burnett who was just warming up for things to come. Madisonville won the second set 25-20, finishing it off the same way as the first set – on a kill by Orange.
Three straight kills by Kendra White opened the third set on a 4-2 lead for Madisonville. The Lady Maroons continued to hold a slight lead through the midway point of the set before things began to turn around for CFS. Trailing 16-14, a service ace by Burnett and kill from Hood tied the game at 16-16 but the Lady Maroons went back up by five points and at 23-21, were just two points from putting the match away.
A block by Burnett followed by a kill tied the set 23-23. Another Burnett kill tied it up again at 24-24 and a third straight kill by the senior tied it once more at 25-25 before the Lady Eagles grabbed the final two points for the 27-25 third set win.
Madisonville again took the early lead in set four but CFS tied it at 6-6 then went up by two before they were knotted up again at 8-8. A back-and-forth battle began before the edge went to CFS behind two kills from Burnett and an ace by Jayden Jackson to take a five-point lead at 17-12.
Madisonville pulled the five points back and tied the set at 18-18 followed by eight more ties until at 26-26, CFS earned the final two points to win 28-26 and tie the match up at two sets each.
In the tiebreaker fifth set, three straight Burnett kills gave the Lady Eagles a 6-3 lead. Madisonville tied it at 6-6 and finished off a 7-0 run to go up 10-6. They held the lead and finished out the set 15-8 to take the 3-2 win.
The loss was the third of the season for the Lady Eagles who are 9-3 while Madisonville improves to 13-5.
Burnett led CFS in kills with 21, Hood had 13 and Gracie Howard with seven. In digs, Jackson led with 20, Rhema Howard had 15, Gracie Howard 14, Hood 13 and Burnett 12. Rhema Howard had 18 assists and Lillian Griggs 10. Jackson finished with three aces.
For Madisonville, White finished with 29 kills and Orange had 24. Amya King led in assists with 47 and Arian Gregory in digs with 30.
Christian Fellowship played five games on Saturday in the Region 1 All ‘A’ Classic. They won four games to advance to the championship against Community Christian Academy, a team they beat earlier in the season 3-2. CCA won 2-0 to win the All ‘A’ title.
Scores:
CFS 2, Ballard Memorial 0 (25-15, 25-12)
CFS 2, Hickman Co. 0 (25-17, 25-15)
CFS 2, Carlisle Co. 0 (25-21, 25-10)
CFS 2, Mayfield 0 (25-21, 25-16)
CCA 2, CFS 0 (25-17, 25-22)
