I can’t believe how fast the summer is clipping along. A nice slap of reality of that as the SK
Girls Volleyball Teams headed to Lexington this weekend for the Bluegrass State
Games for 3 days of nonstop action. First of all, a big congrats to the JV team as
they got the season started off in a winning way bringing home the top medal in
their flight.
A whopping 78 teams entered the varsity competition from literally
all over the state. The SK girls looked
in mid-season form on Friday night as they took down some strong teams from
Greene County and Pulaski County. SK
would roll without losing a set in
either match. The girls wrapped up from
Dunbar High School close to 11:00 p.m. on Friday and had to be back in the gym
at the Kentucky Basketball Academy for an 8:00 a.m. game on Saturday
morning. The short night showed as SK
lost a match to a team that they frankly shouldn’t have lost to in Betsy
Layne. SK bounced back and looked
awesome against a much bigger Woodford County team and won two games to 21 in
just over 20 minutes. SK was now playing
with a little pressure by needing a win against Bethlehem in order to get in
the gold medal bracket. SK looked flat
in the first game of the match but got things in gear winning the second and
third games of the match to win their Saturday pool. The win put the Lady Neers into the Gold
Flight in the BGSG.
The Lady Neers got paired up in the Gold Medal round today
against one of the top ranked teams in Northern Kentucky, the Ryle
Raiders. The pregame talk amongst the
girls in the stands exuded a strong level of confidence. While the BGSG is technically a scrimmage, it
was clear from the girls that they weren’t looking at it that way; they wanted
a W. The girls lost the first set by a
final of 21-16 but led much of the game.
The Neers came out in the second set and grabbed a 4 point lead; a lead
that the girls wouldn’t relinquish as they bested the Raiders forcing a third
game. They celebrated! SK perhaps maybe were a little content by
winning the one game as they let Ryle take a 5-1 lead in the third set. SK buckled down and fought to the end but
could not overcome the Raiders for the match.
(Not official but I heard Ryle went on to win the entire tournament.)
To put a wrap on the weekend, the Neers were definitely one
of the topics as a surprise in the gym by making it to the gold medal round and
by the match they gave Ryle today. The
team looks very strong and much improved from last year and played with a lot
of passion, emotion and grit. While I’m
certainly no v-ball guru, it looked to me that the girls really put a lot into
the off-season and it really showed this weekend. It may be a little early to say but the girls
look primed to make a run at the 8th Region Title. It will definitely be a fun team to
watch. Congrats players and
coaches! You made it a fun weekend to be
a v-ball dad in Lexington.
Kaitlin Murray gets ready to blast a set winning point.
Lots of smiles!
