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Lady Raiders roll in Region opener |
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Written by Greg Bird
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Friday, 23 October 2009 |
The Lady Raiders sent a message Tuesday night: “We’re in this too.”
The Lady Raiders sent a message Tuesday night: “We’re in this too.”
One of eight teams in the 12th Region Tournament, McCreary Central advanced to the final four with a dominating performance in the first round of the quarterfinals.
Freshman Candance Foster recorded 6 kills and 7 aces as the Lady Raiders rolled over the 44th District Champs Mercer County in a straight set victory, (25-13, 25-13).
“We did what we came here to do,” said Coach Robert Jones after the game.
“I think this is one of the most focused performances we have put together all year. We didn’t make a lot of mental mistakes and we had some good leadership from our seniors. We also had our underclassmen deliver when we needed them to.”
Jones said despite McCreary Central entering the tournament with the second best record in the Region (27-8-1), they may be overlooked by the other teams in the competition.
“We deserve to be here,’ he said. “We played a very challenging schedule and that gives us as good of a chance as anybody in this.”
With their opening round win, the Lady Raiders were scheduled to play the Southwestern Lady Warriors in the semi-final game Wednesday night.
Jones told his team that they had a chance to earn respect from the top team in the Region.
“They (Southwestern) dropped us from the schedule,” he told the team after the game. “They didn’t want to play us. I don’t think they respect us, so let’s show them what we can do.”
Southwestern defeated McCreary 2-0 Wednesday night to eliminate the Lady Raiders from the tournament.
McCreary controlled the match from the opening serve.
Kayla Morgan recorded her first block on a Mercer County attack to put McCreary ahead 1-0, and the Lady Raiders never looked back.
Jumping ahead to a quick 13-2 lead, the Lady Raiders dominated at the net and in the back court.
Only once did McCreary show signs of struggle.
With the Raiders leading 21-7, Mercer County took advantage of a few ill-timed errors to win 6 of the next 8 points, but a Morgan kill ended the rally.
Finishing the game like she started it, Morgan defended at the net, blocking a Lady Titan attack to give McCreary the 25-13 win in game 1.
The Lady Titans jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the second game after two McCreary errors, but the Lady Raiders regrouped and regained control.
Morgan gave McCreary a 16-5 lead with seven straight serves, including two aces.
For the second time in the match, the Lady Titans managed to put together a small rally, going on a 7-1 run to close to within 6-points of the lead, mainly due to five McCreary errors, but it was too little, too late.
Foster went to the back row to serve and rolled off five straight aces to give the Raiders a 24-13 lead.
Holly Stevens scored the winning point with a free-ball that landed in the back corner between three Mercer defenders.
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