PADUCAH – Marshall County and McCracken County will meet in tonight’s 1st Region Championship game for the second straight year following the Lady Marshals 3-1 (23-25, 25-18, 29-27, 25-14) win over Graves County and McCracken County’s 3-0 (25-18, 25-11, 25-8) win over Ballard Memorial.
McCracken County has won the 1st Region Championship the last three years since their consolidation and have yet to lose to a Region One team, but the Lady Marshals have played the closest contest against the Lady Mustangs this season on September 15th when McCracken won 3-0 (25-22, 25-20, 25-22).
A much improved Graves County team from earlier matches in the season under Head Coach Shea Dukek, former Lady Marshal player, led early in the first set, until the Lady Marshals tied it 6-6 on an ace by Paige Henson and taking their first lead 9-8 on a hit by Ragan Harris. Graves County was successful at the net against the Lady Marshals, blocking hits and getting kills from Nikki Gregory and Mallory Myatt.
Graves County led throughout the first set before the Lady Marshals climbed back in on kills from Alexis Hines and Hannah Langhi, tying the game 22-22 but the Lady Eagles would close the set out on a hit by Gregory and set point serve from Hailey Knisely to win 25-23
In the second set, the Lady Marshals got rolling on two kills from Langhi that put them up 4-3, hanging on to a slight lead before Graves County tied 10-10. Leading 13-10, Harris would serve at least eight straight for points for an 18-10 lead. Two straight kills by Langhi would give the Lady Marshals a 21-11 lead and they went on to win 25-18.
The third set was a battle with both teams getting great offense from their hitters but struggling with serves, until the Lady Marshals went up 27-26 but would have that point removed on a violation during substitutions. Tied again at 27-27, the Lady Marshals would score the next two points for a 29-27 win to go up 2-1.
With serves still an issue for both teams, the Lady Marshals won the fourth set 25-14 behind kills by Harris, Langhi and Hines, finishing out the match with a block by Langhi and final hit by Langhi, who had 33 kills in the win, for the match winning point.
Hines added 9 kills in the win followed by Harris with 6. Henson had 44 assists and 10 digs. Harrington and Bradley both had 6 digs and as a team the Lady Marshals had 34 digs and 10 aces.
Tonight’s championship game will start at 6:00 at McCracken County High School.
