Special Coverage: Corbin volleyball wins district Tuesday, Redhound boys soccer on to region finals

As reported in the October 18, 2017 edition of the News Journal, the Corbin Lady Hounds volleyball team advanced to Tuesday night’s 50th District championship game at Whitley County High School after defeating Williamsburg on Monday, 3-0 (25-14, 25-10, 25-15).

The Lady Hounds faced South Laurel in the district finals after the Lady Cardinals defeated defending 13th Region champions Whitley County in their semifinal round game Monday, also in three straight sets (25-17, 25-16, 25-12).

Corbin got off to a great start against South Tuesday, winning the first two sets 25-19 and 25-19. The Lady Cards made a comeback, however, winning sets three and four (25-22, 25-14) to force a decisive fifth set for this year’s district championship. The Lady Hounds rose to the occasion is set five, winning by the final score of 15-2 to bring the first place trophy back to Corbin.

With this championship victory, the Lady Hounds will enter this year’s 13th Region tournament at North Laurel High School with an overall season record of 25-6. The region tournament bracket will not be set until Wednesday afternoon, but once it is decided those interested can check KHSAA.org for more details on game dates and times.

Of course, coverage from the 2017 13th Region volleyball tournament will be available inside next week’s edition of the News Journal.

Also Tuesday, the Corbin Redhounds boys soccer team hosted Knox Central in a semifinal round game of this year’s 13th Region championship tournament at Corbin Primary School.

The host Redhounds had to battle hard to get the job done, but in the end they were able to earn a 2-0 victory over the 50th District champion Panthers, improving their season record to 11-5 and advancing them to play again on Thursday with a chance to make it to the 2017 KHSAA state championship tournament on the line.

Corbin Head Coach Armando Cima said that he knew coming into Tuesday’s game that Knox Central was a much-improved team, and he knew that it was going to take a “good effort” from his players in order to get the win. “I thought we did well,” he said. “A game like this was a good way for these boys to prep for Thursday. I hope that this has built our confidence back up a little bit.”

Confidence was low after a disappointing 3-0 loss to South Laurel in the finals of the 49th District tournament last week, but now the Hounds will get a shot at retribution as they will be hosting the Cardinals in the region championship game Thursday.

As for Tuesday’s win over Knox, it was junior Trey Cima who got his team on the board first with a goal scored off of a free kick at the 17:53 mark in the first half of play. Cima would follow that up later by heading in a nice corner kick from teammate Jacob Johnson not even a minute into the second half. Corbin was able to create a few other good scoring opportunities during the course of the contest, but as it turns out, those two goals were all that was needed. The Panthers gave it their all, but they were never able to put themselves in a great position to send the ball into the goal against an aggressive Redhound defense.

As for the district championship rematch on Thursday to determine who will be going on to state, coach Cima said that he just hopes to see his team put forth their best effort. “A soccer match can go either way,” he said. “On any given day any team can win. We just have to come out with our best effort, and play like a team that wants to advance.”

The boys 13th Region championship game between Corbin and South Laurel is scheduled to begin at approximately 8:00 p.m. Thursday evening at Corbin Primary School. As reported in the October 18 print edition, the Corbin girls soccer team will also be playing for a region title Thursday at 6:00 p.m. They too will be involved in a rematch from the district tournament finals, taking on the North Laurel Lady Jaguars.

Look to thenewsjournal.net late Thursday night for updates on both of these region championship contests.