Hillsboro Lady Indians win 2024 Highland County Spike & Dig championship

The season has started with two big wins for the Hillsboro Lady Indians volleyball team, as they won the 19th annual Highland County Spike & Dig Tournament championship on Saturday at Hillsboro High School. 

Hillsboro defeated Whiteoak in the semifinals in two straight sets, then defeated the ’23 Spike & Dig champions, the McClain Lady Tigers, in the finals. 

Overall, HHS was 2-0, followed by McClain as the runners-up at 1-1. In third place was Lynchburg-Clay at 1-1, and WHS finished 0-2. 

In the semifinals, Hillsboro won by scores of 25-10 and 25-16 against Whiteoak. 

For HHS in the match, Ryan Wagoner led the Lady Indians with seven kills, followed by Samantha Tipton with four kills and Allie Roush with three kills. Tylee Davis and Camryn Spruell each totaled two kills. 

The Lady Indians collected eight aces as a team, with Seeling and Davis each with two, while earning one ace each were Wagoner, Tipton, Addison Huff and Spruell. 

The digs leader for the Lady Indians was Davis with seven, followed by Seeling with six. Others with digs for HHS were Huff (three), Jadi Howland (two), Wagoner (two) and Tipton (one). 

All 18 assists for Hillsboro in the win over WHS were made by Seeling, and the leader in service receptions was Howland with eight. HHS also had service receptions by Wagoner (six), Huff (four) and Davis (one). 

For WHS in the loss, Kylee Hamm led the Lady ’Cats with six kills, while Kylee Ruark and Kathryn Cox each finished with one kill apiece. The Lady ’Cats also had two aces, and they were from Charlize Hauke and Hamm, as each had one. 

Whiteoak’s Ruark had four blocks, while Hamm, Madison Schum and Addison Roberts each had one. Cox was the digs leader for Whiteoak against Hillsboro with Hamm having 11, followed by Roberts (five), Elly McMullen (four), Schum (four) and Cox (four). 

Roberts totaled seven assists for the Lady ’Cats, and Hauke totaled one assist. The WHS service reception leader was Schum with 14, followed by McMullen (eight), Hamm (seven) and Cox (five). 

In the second semifinal match, McClain defeated Lynchburg-Clay in two sets at 25-20 and 25-18. 

The Lady Mustangs were led in kills by Addy Carraher and Mattie Magee with four each. Other kills were collected by Avery Shope (one), Halle Greene (two) and Kylie O’Connor (three). 

Aces were completed by Ava McLaughlin and O’Connor with one each vs. McClain, while the digs leader was Joslyn Rockey with 16. Carraher totaled six digs, and other digs were collected by McLaughlin (two), Ava Doughman (two), Greene (three) and Morgan Baker (three). 

Lynchburg-Clay’s assists leader was McLaughlin with seven, while Carraher had two, Rockey had two and O’Connor had one assist. Rockey led LCHS with 18 service receptions, and next was Shope with 10. The rest of the service receptions were recorded by  Doughman (two), Carraher (one), Magee (one), Greene (one), O’Connor (one) and Baker (one). 

In the consolation game for third place, Lynchburg-Clay defeated Whiteoak in two sets at 25-16 and 25-19. The LCHS win also saw Rockey earn her 500th career dig.  

The game saw LCHS leaders include Rockey (18 digs, 11 service receptions, three aces), Carraher (14 assists), Greene (11 kills) and Magee (one block).

Whiteoak’s leaders in the consolation game were Hamm (two kills), Roberts (six assists, two aces), Ruark and Schum (two total blocks), Hamm (11 digs) and Schum (14 service receptions). 

In the championship game, the Lady Indians defeated the Lady Tigers in two sets. 

Hillsboro’s leaders in the finals were Davis (seven kills), Seeling (three aces), Davis (11 digs), Seeling (16 assists) and Howland (nine service receptions). 

(Stats for McClain will be added at a later date.)

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