University Heights Academy sent Hopkinsville High School’s volleyball program to the history books Monday night with a 3-0 win in the District 8 Tournament at Christian County High School.
The loss ends the program at Hoptown, which will consolidate with Christian County next fall.
In the first set, the Lady Tigers took a 1-0 lead on a Madysen Taggart spike. But the rest of the way was all UHA. The Lady Blazers went on a 10-0 run to take a 15-3 advantage on the way to a 25-11 win.
Hopkinsville jumped out to an 8-1 lead in the second set before UHA began to battle back.
The Lady Tigers led 15-13 after two tough serves by Hoptown’s Lainey Stewart. UHA rebounded to take a 19-16 advantage only to see the Lady Tigers tie the game 19-19.
Niyona Brown had a spike and Niyati Patel had two straight aces and UHA went on to win the set 25-19.
UHA got out to an early lead in the third set and led by as much as 8-4 before the Lady Tigers were able to get within 14-11.
But a 7-0 run by the Lady Blazers put the game out of reach and UHA went on to claim the 25-14 victory.
Taggart had 13 kills, a block, eight digs, and an ace to lead the Lady Tigers, who saw their season end at 6-21. Alayna King had two kills and 15 assists. Saralynn Major also had a pair of kills.
The Lady Blazers were led by Brown, who had six kills and three blocks and Patel with four kills and six digs. Megan Long had five kills. Gretchan Durham provided three blocks, four digs, 18 assists, and five aces.
UHA improved to 12-16 on the season and advances to play top seed Christian County at 5:30 p.m. today in the semifinals. Second seed Heritage Christian Academy will meet third seed Fort Campbell at 7 p.m.
Photos by Joe Wilson