Dayton’s Demetriona Harmon sets the ball against the Bracken County Lady Bears on October 9, 2024.
The Bracken County Lady Bears hosted the Dayton Lady Devils on the volleyball court Wednesday night.
Throughout the season the Lady Bears have been playing strong, entering their contest with the Lady Devils 16-10 on the season and 6-0 against district opponents. As the regular season winds down, Bracken County has been taking on numerous tough opponents to help keep them prepared for the upcoming 39th district tournament.
In set one, both the Lady Bears and Lady Devils refused to allow the opposition to build up a solid lead, keeping the contest tied early all the way through 15-15. Eventually, Bracken County was able to pull ahead of Dayton to close out set one 25-20.
“They’re just a tough team. They play defense, nothing hits the floor. We’re used to that when we play Dayton, we go back and forth every game that we play with them, we know it’s gonna be a challenge. I think the girls just made a few mistakes that they capitalized on, but we did well enough to get through and we’re just building everyday.” said Lady Bears head coach, Julie Krift.
After pulling ahead to win set one 25-20, and leading 1-0 over Dayton in the contest, the Lady Bears then fell behind quickly in set two. Early on in the set, the Lady Devils worked to build up a 5-0 lead over Bracken County, a lead they expanded to 10-4 shortly after. As the set continued however, the Lady Bears gradually closed the gap, catching up to the Lady Devils 11-10, and tying the contest 14-14. Despite fighting their way back close to Dayton, and keeping the contest tied all the way to 19-19, the Lady Bears were unable to close out set two with a victory, falling to the Lady Devils 25-23, and were now tied in the contest 1-1.
“We made a ton of mistakes. I told them I think we made ten mistakes in the first ten points, but we couldn’t find the floor for a while on their side of the court. There towards the end we started putting it together the way we normally play and we started finding it.” said coach Krift.
Bracken County then returned to the court in set three eager to close out their contest with Dayton with a win, jumping out ahead of the Lady Devils 5-2 early, and pulling ahead further 10-5. Midway through set three, the Lady Devils would be able to catch up to Bracken County, down 11-10, but the Lady Bears would continue to fight, pulling ahead once again 15-11, and 20-12. By the end of set three, the Lady Bears led 25-13, and took the contest home with a 2-1 win over the Lady Devils, now 17-10 on the season, with just three games remaining on the schedule before they hit the court for the 39th district tournament.
“We’re feeling great. We play this weekend, we go to Bullitt Central we’re gonna see a lot of teams that we’ve never seen before. They might not be winners of Louisville but they are pretty good teams, they play very strong defense, offense, we’re gonna have a good time. It’s gonna help us prepare for districts and hopefully for region after that.” said coach Krift.
During the contest, Bracken County junior Macy Lucas picked up her 280th kill of the 2024 season, and her 722nd kill of her high school career, breaking the all time record at Bracken County.
“She’s great, she’s worked hard since she’s been with us. She’s been up here since the seventh grade. She played defense for a few years when she was young but she started playing middle for us when she was a freshman and after that she moved to the outside and she’s a Bracken County powerhouse now. Everybody’s had a really hard time stopping her this year, and she’s shown that she is as strong as anybody on the outside.” said coach Krift.
The Lady Bears’ next contest on the schedule will be this Monday, October 14 where they will host the Walton-Verona Bearcats at home at the Igloo, at 7:00 p.m. Bracken County will then round out their regular season with two games on the road, taking on Bellevue and Bourbon County to close out 2024.
