Lady Colonels win 11th straight

 The Whitley County Lady Colonels’ volleyball team is on a roll. The Lady Colonels came from behind twice Monday night to defeat the North Laurel Lady Jaguars, after losing the first set 18-25. They came back with wins of  27-25, 26-24, 25-11.

It was the 11^th straight win by the Lady Colonels. Their only losses came on Aug. 24 when they fell to Casey County, Nelson County and West Jessamine in the Boyle County Invitational.

Since the tournament, Whitley County has lost only three sets, one to Clay County and one to rival, Corbin (3-1) and North Laurel (3-1).

It was a battle of the unbeaten. The Lady Colonels got a fight at North Laurel, who entered the contest 5-0 against 13^th region opponents while Whitley County is 8-0 against teams in the 13^th Region.

It was North Laurel (9-7) getting off to a 3-0 lead before junior Briana Maynes helped lead the Lady Colonels back to a 6-6 tie. The Lady Jaguars took control of the game and pushed their lead out to 14-10 and never trailed again.

The second and third sets were extremely close and could have gone to either team. It was Whitley County gaining control of the game behind the play of Maynes, Taylor Dingess, Alexa Chaffman, Brandi Smith, Chelsea Bozeman and Caylin Louthan.

The Lady Colonels pushed their lead out to 12-8 on a Smith kill, but North Laurel came back to take a 17-14 lead.

Maynes was on target with her jump serve and made it difficult for the Lady Jaguars. Whitley County went on an 8-2 run before North Laurel Coach Haley Ratliff took a time-out.

The break helped settle her team as the Lady Jaguars came back to take a 24-23 advantage. The game was tied at 25-all with Kelsey Hacker serving for North Laurel, but a rally point gave Whitley County the lead and Bozeman closed out the win with a serve followed by a Smith kill.

It looked like the Lady Jaguars were going to blow the Lady Colonels off the court in the third set as the host took a 9-3 lead. North Laurel led 15-7 when Kelsey Osborne stopped the bleeding with a point.

Maynes again showed her strength on the serving line and scored nine unanswered points, giving the Lady Colonels a 16-15 lead.

It looked like Whitley County was going to ease out with the victory, but North Laurel made another strong push and came back to tie the game, 24-24. Whitley County, however, scored the next two points for the narrow, 26-24 win.

The fourth set saw a tired-looking North Laurel team on the floor. Whitley County ran out to a 3-0 score, before the Lady Jaguars came back to take a 9-7 lead.

Once the Lady Colonels gained control of the serve, Whitley County pushed ahead for good. The Lady Colonels outscored North Laurel 4-0 before calling a time-out.

From that point it was all Whitley County, outscoring North Laurel 14-2 for the 25-11 win.

Whitley County will meet the Lady Jaguars again Friday night when they meet in pool play of the Lady Colonel First Priority Tournament. Whitley County will take on Leslie County at 6 p.m., followed by the game against the Lady Jaguars. They will play Middlesboro Saturday at 10 a.m. and Bath County at noon.

South Laurel, Estill County, Bell County, Corbin and Harlan will also be in the 10-team tournament.

 The actual pool schedule is in this week’s News Journal.