St. Patrick takes on Bourbon County on Monday at 7:45 p.m. in the 10th Region quarterfinals at 7:45 p.m. (Evan Dennison, The Ledger Independent)
HIGH SCHOOL VOLLEYBALL
The 10th Region volleyball tournament gets going on Monday at Montgomery County.
The question begs as it has since 2003, can any school outside of Northern Kentucky win it?
That’s been the case since the 10th Region formed in 2003 in volleyball and no school outside of the area has been able to claim a region championship. Scott and Campbell County will try to continue that streak, while St. Patrick, Bracken County, Montgomery County, Pendleton County, Harrison County and Bourbon County will try to end it.
Monday’s quarterfinal matchups feature what might be the best first round matchups when Harrison County (24-12) and Scott (14-22) open up the tournament at 6 p.m.
St. Patrick (14-13) and Bourbon County (20-15) will follow at 7:45 p.m.
Tuesday’s quarterfinals continue with Campbell County (14-15) taking on Pendleton County (21-10) at 6 p.m. and the host Montgomery County (24-11) taking on Bracken County (11-24) at 7:45 p.m.
District champs are Campbell out of the 37th, Harrison out of the 38th, St. Patrick out of the 39th and Montgomery out of the 40th.
Prior to 2012, Newport Central Catholic was in the region and won the title from 2006-11, Campbell County winning in 2005, Highlands in 2004 and Newport Central Catholic in 2003. The region then realigned in 2012 with Scott and Campbell County having their run of dominance ever since.
Scott is the defending champion and has won five of the last seven regional titles. Campbell County has won four regional titles since 2012 with the two teams facing off in nearly every regional final in that timeframe outside of 2015 when Scott beat Bishop Brossart and 2018 when Campbell County beat Harrison County. That was the only time a team outside of the 37th District made the championship game in that timeframe.
The teams that should provide the most resistance to ending the run will be Montgomery County and Harrison County. The two split their head-to-head matchups during the regular season and Montgomery lost a tight three-set match to Campbell County on September 22, (25-17, 26-24, 25-23). Harrison County lost to Campbell County (25-22, 25-18) on October 5 and Scott (25-11, 20-25, 25-20) on October 7.
St. Patrick figures to be a tough out with their scrappy style of play and minimizing mistakes and should be a good first round matchup with Bourbon County. The Lady Saints are back-to-back 39th District champs while Bourbon County enters as the runner-up out of the 40th District.
Pendleton County, the runner-up out of the 38th District has their most amount of wins in a season since the KHSAA started recording wins and losses in 2002 for the program and should provide some resistance to the 37th District champ Lady Camels.
Bracken County, the runner-up out of the 39th District might enter with the worst record in the field, but have a lot of experience when it comes to the region tournament, having made it every year since 2013. They lost to the 40th District champ Montgomery County in straight sets (25-14, 25-17, 25-12) on September 7.
Semifinals take place on Wednesday at 6 p.m. and 7:45 p.m. with the championship on Thursday at 6:30 p.m.
