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Lady Raiders finish second |
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Written by Greg Bird
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Friday, 29 August 2008 |
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Every winning streak must come to an end, and for the Lady Raiders the end came at the worst possible moment…during the championship game of the McCreary Central Invitational Tournament. 
The two-day, 12-team tournament, held at McCreary Middle and Pine Knot Intermediate due to resurfacing work at the high school gym, proved to be a great litmus test for the Lady Raiders as they mount their quest for their first District title.
After dropping their first match of the season on August 12 the Lady Raiders had been on a tear, winning 18 consecutive games and 9 straight matches leading up to the championship game against the team that had handed them their only defeat of the season: Clinton County.
McCreary breezed through the early part of the tournament, sweeping Monticello (21-8, 21-17), Somerset (21-16, 21-16), Jellico (21-17, 21-17), Adair County (21-18, 21-11) and Jackson County (21-14, 21-19), earning them the top seed in bracket play.
Their fist match in the championship bracket pitted them against Monticello who had defeated Lynn Camp to advance. McCreary handled the Lady Trojans with ease (21-15, 21-11) setting up a showdown with one of the top teams in the 13th Region, North Laurel.
The Lady Raiders brought their A-game against the Lady Jags, knocking off the second seeded team with two straight dominant games (21-13, 21-15).
The win set up a showdown with the other top-seeded squad in the tournament, Clinton County for the Tournament Championship.
The Lady Bulldogs, who had won 12 of 14 games leading up the match, made some adjustments since the last time they faced McCreary, incorporating more finesse in their attacks, scoring on several soft tips before the Lady Raiders countered with adjustments of their own. Clinton held off a McCreary charge in the final moments of the first game for a 21-18 win.
The Lady Raiders rebounded with a 21-19 win in the second game to force a tie-breaking game to determine the champion. The game went back-and-forth for the first few points, but Clinton County managed to press their advantage and finally won 15-8 to claim the title.
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