Lady Mustangs top North Adams in 5 sets; advance to district finals
Lynchburg-Clay senior Kylie O'Connor (14) is pictured from the district quarterfinal match earlier this postseason. (HCP Photo/Stephen Forsha)
Even though the Lynchburg-Clay Lady Mustangs lost twice to the North Adams Lady Green Devils in the regular season, none of that mattered in the Division VI SE District Semifinals on Wednesday as the Lady Mustangs were victorious over the Lady Green Devils in five sets at Wellston High School.
No. 4 seeded Lynchburg-Clay earned the postseason tournament win in the semifinal round by winning sets one, two and five. LCHS won the first and second sets by scores of 25-22, then after losing sets three and four by scores of 25-20 and 25-19 to No. 5 seeded North Adams, Lynchburg-Clay rallied and won the fifth and match-deciding set (first to score 15) by a 15-5 score.
Unofficially, the win by Lynchburg-Clay snapped at least a two-decade losing streak against their conference rival.
In the first set, the two teams battled nearly even, until LC junior Hydee Green had an ace that pushed LCHS ahead, 22-20. From there, junior Bre Rosselott made it a 23-20 lead, and eventually the first set ended at 25-22 when Rosselott and Addy Carraher made a play at the net for the set point.
The second set had a couple tied scores early on with Green having a kill for a 6-4 LCHS lead. Later, Kylie O’Connor had a kill as well for a 10-5 Lynchburg-Clay advantage, and it was Green again with three consecutive aces for a 14-6 Lady Mustangs advantage.
LCHS then built a 16-8 lead, followed by an ace by O’Connor for a 17-8 lead. Late in the second set, it was a block by Rosselott to make it a 24-22 LCHS lead, and the second set ended with a block by Carraher for the 25-22 win.
In set three, North Adams and LCHS were tied late in the match at 15, 16, 17 and 18, but from there, the Lady Green Devils held the advantage for the rest of the set as they won 25-20.
The fourth set was also won by NAHS at 25-19 where they broke a 1-1 tie and didn’t trail for the remainder of the set.
In the fifth and final set, LCHS took a 4-0 lead with help by senior Halle Greene, including a couple kills. Aces by Carraher put the Lady Mustangs ahead by a 9-2 score, then a kill by Greene moved the LCHS lead to eight points (10-2).
Greene, again, came up strong for Lynchburg-Clay with a kill and an ace for a 13-4 lead, then she had another ace for a 14-4 lead. The final point that ended the fifth set, the match and the point that sent LCHS to the district finals was a service error by North Adams for the 15-5 set win and 3-2 match victory.
No. 4 seeded Lynchburg-Clay will face the No. 1 seeded Valley Lady Indians on Saturday, Oct. 31 with a current start time of TBA at Wellston High School.
(Editor’s Note: Thank you to C103.FM and GoodGuysRadioTV for their contribution to the article.)