Senior Nataleigh Koontz mixed up her speeds all night to rack up the kills.
Photos by Drew Terhall | The Daily Advocate
Junior Lilly Camacho reaches back to get an attack attempt off. She overpowered the National Trail defense all match long.
Sophomore Kynnedi Hager was effective attacking from anywhere on the court.
By Drew Terhall
DailyAdvocate.com
NEW MADISON —The Lady Patriots continue to roll as they grab their third straight WOAC win with a 3-0 sweep over National Trail at home on Sep. 25.
Tri-Village turned around a 1-5 start to now be 7-10 on the season. Head coach Taylor Rawlings said the team is starting to play better together.
“We’re starting to mesh more as a team. We had some young ones, we had some older kids. I think it’s finally starting to click, which is a good time right before tournament,” Rawlings said.
Tri-Village started on fire in the first two sets. They raced out to a 7-1 lead in the first set and a 12-5 lead in the second set. Everything was clicking for the Lady Patriots right from the start.
They forced the Lady Blazers into some early timeouts in both sets. After each timeout, National Trail started to go point for point with Tri-Village.
But, the Lady Patriots would bounce back and take over the set to cruise through the set. They won the first set, 25-10, and then the second set, 25-13.
Rawlings said it was a big positive to see the team let go of their mistakes during a set and fight back when National Trail gained just a tiny bit of momentum.
It was a bit of a roller coaster in the third set. Tri-Village came out and got a 7-3 lead early. Then National Trail called a timeout and made it a two-point game after the timeout.
Tri-Village then pulled away with their power hitting from the front line. With the Lady Patriots up 18-11, the Lady Blazers called a timeout.
National Trail proceeded to score six straight points to make it an 18-17 game. The Lady Blazers made the Lady Patriots work for their last points.
Tri-Village dug deep and got the win in the third set, 25-21, to complete the sweep.
All game long, the hitters for Tri-Village came out strong. Senior Nataleigh Koontz, junior Lilly Camacho and sophomore Kynnedi Hager all could hit their spots with force.
“We have a few power hitters that pushed along the game. Lilly Camacho did great for us tonight. Kynnedi Hager and Nataleigh Koontz, their great hitters for us. We need them to be on every night,” Rawlings said.
Rawlings also credited her defense for being steady all match long and for not letting up many easy points.
“I also thought our defense stepped up and played very disciplined and competitive tonight,” Rawlings said.
Tri-Village has three conference games left and a non-conference game against Kenton Ridge before they will set off for tournament play.
Contact Daily Advocate sports editor Drew Terhall at [email protected]
