Moran Broderick makes a serve against the Bracken County Lady Bears September 11, 2024.
The Bracken County Lady Bears hosted the Nicholas County Lady Jackets on the volleyball court Wednesday night.
The Lady Bears have been having a strong year throughout 2024, having gone 5-3 on the season prior to their meeting with the Lady Jackets.
Early on in the first set, Nicholas County would pick up a short lead, leading 3-1 over the Polar Bears, but would be unable to maintain it, Bracken County tying the contest 3-3. From there, the Lady Bears would pull ahead and continue to hold strong over Nicholas County, quickly picking up an 11-4 lead. The Lady Jackets would be able to catch up, still down 14-12, and tie the contest late in the set 18-18, but would once again fall behind, with the Lady Bears taking set one 25-20.
“We have an issue with starting out, I don’t know what it is but we just have an issue with starting out our game. We always let our opponent get up a few points and then we have to work our way back but most of the time they do okay with that. I thought we played well tonight, we lost a heart-breaker last night and I just felt like they were ready to go tonight because of it.” said Lady Bears head coach, Julie Krift.
In set two, the Lady Bears came out of the gate strong, quickly racking up a 9-1 lead over Nicholas County. Bracken County would expand upon this lead as the set continued, furthering the point deficit to 15-2, before allowing Nicholas County to begin to score. The Lady Bears continued to show their strength towards the end of set two however, closing the set out 25-15 over the Lady Jackets.
“We’ve been working a lot on our game, I know I’ve said this before but, we’re working on things that will make us better at the end of the season. It takes a while to get that on point, but it’s coming together and the more we do it the better it’s gonna be.” said coach Krift, “I feel like we ran a lot of quicks in the middle, we ran a lot of quicks outside, we eliminated almost any kind of block they had outside and our outsides were just swinging without one, so that’s what you really want to do.”
At the end of set two, the Lady Bears took the contest 2-0 over Nicholas County, and were proud of their performance.
“I feel great, I think they played well tonight, we passed well, served well and executed just the way we wanted to.” said coach Krift.
With this win under their belts, the Lady Bears then geared up to take on the Pendleton County Lady Cats yesterday evening, their last of three back-to-back contests of the week.
“We talked about it on Monday, we talked about all three games this week and then we play again on Monday. We’ve talked about all four of those games, a lot of the teams we played this week are very similar. We know Pendleton pretty well because we studied the heck out of them last year before the regional tournament. They do have a new head coach, she’s doing a great job, absolutely fabulous it looks like to me, so it does look a little bit like a different team but I feel like we’re ready for them as we continue to play our game.” said coach Krift, “We want to do what we’re trying to do, and they’re getting it. We’re just gonna come out and try and be as aggressive as possible.”
Following last night’s contest against the Lady Cats, Bracken County will then head to Paris on Monday to take on the Lady Hounds, and hope to continue proving their strength on the court as the season progresses, and the postseason continues to draw near.
