The McCracken County Lady Mustangs began their run in the First Region volleyball tournament on Monday night, as they took on the Carlisle County Lady Comets. By the end of the night, the region’s prohibitive favorites took another step towards their 13th straight title, advancing with a dominant three-set sweep.
“We’re just taking things day-by-day, opponent-by-opponent this postseason, because we know anything can happen in the playoffs,” McCracken County head coach Chancie Coleman said. “The pressure on the girls is always huge in the postseason, so we’re just staying consistent, focusing on the small details, and trying not to get too wrapped up in the big picture.”
Needing to shake off some early cobwebs which saw them fall behind 5-3, the Lady Mustangs didn’t take long to find their form in the first set. After they re-took the lead at 9-8, four straight points with Lily Hamilton saw them pull away and never look back. Cruising to the win, a kill for Hamilton would wrap up the first set by a score of 25-13.
The Lady Mustangs stayed on the gas in the second set, quickly giving themselves some breathing room on the scoreboard by taking the first four points. Staying in control the whole way through, the attack of the Lady Mustangs overwhelmed the Lady Comets once again as they earned a two-set advantage, rolling to a 25-11 victory.
“We always try to play with speed, that’s always been our main goal,” Coleman said on the Lady Mustangs’ offensive approach. “Our speed is definitely our best asset this year. We’re a little smaller than we have been in the past, but the key to our game is that we can use our speed, spread it around to our different hitters. All of our hitters have about the same average sets this year, and it gives blockers problems because they don’t know where we’re going.”
While the Lady Comets would attempt to make a stand facing elimination, taking the first two points of the set, they wouldn’t be able to hold McCracken off much longer than that. Once tied at three, the Lady Mustangs would start to roll once again with Caroline Presswood serving, rattling off ten unanswered points, with three coming from aces. From there, McCracken stayed firmly in control to close out the match, completing the sweep by a score of 25-7.
“Our main focus tonight was working on the little things, those small details that might gain us a couple of extra points per set…Every girl out there has a shot they’re working on, or something they want to get dialed in, and we want to get that worked out as we continue into the postseason,” Coleman said. “We didn’t really have that focus in the first two, but I thought in the third set we really locked things in, and figured things out.”
With the win, the Lady Mustangs move along to the semifinals, where they’re set to face off against Marshall County, following the Lady Marshals win over Ballard Memorial earlier in the night. Another team that they haven’t faced this year, Coleman and the Lady Mustangs are looking forward to a new challenge tonight.
“We haven’t played them this season, so it was good to have a chance to come and watch them play tonight,” Coleman concluded. “They’re a very scrappy team, they bring up a lot of balls, and play big along the net. It’ll be an interesting matchup.”