Coffee County volleyball had their smokers at the ready when the Lady Jackets came buzzing to Central High School Thursday night. CHS won with a 3-1 match victory.Â
A strong offensive performance in the first set helped the Lady Raiders jump off to an early lead. Sophomore Lexi Bryan had five kills to start things off. Juniors Keelie Hillis and Abigail Parker, sophomore Keri Munn and freshman Kiya Ferrell had three each.
The Lady Jackets went on a small four-point streak, but it wouldn't be enough and Coffee County won the first set 25-17.
The second set stayed closer with both teams going back and forth in the race to 25. The CHS offense slowed down this time around and Grundy County capitalized, tying at 22-22 before pushing ahead. At 24-23 with the chance to push the set into extras, the Lady Jackets found their game point to tie the match at 1-1.
In the third set, the Lady Raiders jumped ahead off a trio of aces from senior Abigail Layne and one each from Munn and junior Amanda Mukai. Ferrell had another strong showing with four more kills. The Lady Raiders ran away with the third 25-12.
In the fourth set, the Lady Raiders found themselves down 3-0 until Mukai found another kill to tie the set 12-12, but Grundy County wasn't ready to go home yet and put another six points on the board.
Down 18-13, Layne came in clutch with three more aces. The Lady Raiders didn't fall behind again and won the set for a 3-1 match victory.
"We're still battling consistency but they hung in there and did what it took to get a win," said Coach Andrew Taylor.
Lexi Bryan led the team in kills with 12 and Abigail Layne led in aces with six. Amanda Mukai had 22 assists and Keelie Hillis and Kerri Munn both had 1.5 blocks.
On Thursday, Mar. 21, the Southern Indiana Screaming Eagles made history by winning their first WNIT game with a 69-64 victory over the UIC Flames and they will look to make the Super 16 when they play host to Wisconsin on Monday night.
On Saturday, the Coffee County Red Raiders took part in the Joe Adams Memorial Tournament at Walker Valley High School, losing to Cleveland 14-4 and beating Walker Valley 6-4.