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The Southwestern volleyball team hoisted their 46th District Tournament championship trophy in the air after they claimed the program’s first-ever KHSAA post-season tournament title. The Lady Warriors downed South Laurel 2-1 (23-25, 25-15, 25-19) on Tuesday night at North Laurel High School. Steve Cornelius Photo
Lady Warriors win program’s first district title
London — In 2006, the Southwestern volleyball team made their first-ever trip to the 12th Region Tournament, but they lost to Pulaski County in the district finals to get there.
In 2007, the Lady Warriors made it to their first-ever 12th Region championship game, but they lost to South Laurel once they got there.
Last night at North Laurel High School, Southwestern achieved another program first, and they lost to no one in their 2-1 (23-25, 25-15, 25-19) 46th District Championship win over South Laurel.
“In this district, you have to earn a district championship,” Southwestern coach James Cox said. “They don’t just hand it to you and it is really tough. This first district championship is really special.”
“The past two years we have had two district runner-ups, so we’ve been there and done that,” Cox added. “So, I told the girls let’s do something more. They really wanted this district title. This is really big for us. We are going to celebrate this right now and then we are going to get ready for next week.”
After dominating in the opening stages of the first game, Southwestern saw South Laurel rally and overtake them to put the Lady Warriors behind the 8-ball as they trailed one-game-to-none.
However, Lady Warrior Amber Phelps had two kills, Brooke Sexton had two kills, Brittany Whitaker had a kill and Katy Broussard had a serving ace in a Southwestern 8 to 0 run to put them up 18-8 in game two.
Kills by Kelsey Roberts, (2) and Cassie Thompson put the Lady Warriors out in front 23-11 in the second game. The Lady Warriors withstood a late Lady Cardinal run and countered with kills by Thompson and Roberts to claim a 25-15 second game win.
In the tiebreaker game, South Laurel ran out to a quick 4-0 lead before the Lady Warriors countered with kills by Roberts, Thompson and Sexton to hold a slim 10-9 lead.
With the score tied at 11-11, Southwestern went on a 7 to 2 run that South Laurel never recovered from. Roberts scored a kill to put Southwestern up 12-11, but two Lady Warrior errors allowed South Laurel to regain the lead. Then, Roberts scored on a kill and two aces, while teammates Sexton and Katy Broussard added one kill apiece to up Southwestern’s lead to 17-13.
South Laurel got as close as three points at 20-17, but four unforced Lady Cardinal errors and a block by Thompson gave Southwestern their biggest win in the program’s history.
“I told the girls before the game ‘to play to win’, because we are just as good as they (South Laurel) are,” Cox said. “I think the girls believe that now, and South Laurel is a really great team.”
“All 10 of my girls did something to help us, the bench was great, the crowd got into it, and for volleyball that is really amazing,” Cox added. “That shows you how much has changed in six years.”
In the first game, Southwestern was paced with three kills by Broussard, one kill by Amber Phelps, one kill by Sexton and a serving ace by Rachel Floyd in their 9-2 opening lead. Southwestern led by as much as 16-11, but South Laurel went on a 10 to 1 run to take a commanding 21-17 lead en route to their game-one win.
“We came out really well and we were really pumped up,” Cox said. “We got the early lead, but it seemed we lost a little bit of focus, and against a good team like South Laurel you just can’t do that.”
Southwestern was led by Brooke Sexton with 13 kills and one ace. Kelsey Roberts had 10 kills and 4 aces. Katy Broussard had 5 kills and an ace. Amber Phelps had 3 kills and an ace, Cassie Thompson had 3 kills and Rachel Floyd had two aces.
Local players named to the 46th District All-Tournament team included, Somerset Shemeara Jones, Pulaski’s Kim Phelps and Ashlie Dye, and Southwestern’s Katy Broussard, Kelsey Phelps, Brooke sexton and Amber Phelps.
Both, Southwestern (28-8) and South Laurel (29-9) will advance to next week’s 12th Regional Tournament to be played at Pulaski County High School.
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