Lady Cats Drop Season Opener To Trinity In Five Sets

Junior Caitlyn Simon passes the ball against Trinity. Eighth grader Emma Woodcock (18) stands by.

Volleyball fans got their money's worth last night at Edmonson County High School, but unfortunately, Lady Cat fans saw their team on the losing side of the scoreboard as EC fell to Trinity in five sets in the 2016 season home opener.

A rematch of last year's 12th District Championship finals that saw Trinity claim the title, each set was a back-and-forth battle between two very well-matched teams.

The momentum was in Trinity's favor as they had a couple of impressive runs in the first set, topping the Lady Cats 25-18.

Edmonson County started the second set with much more intensity and jumped out to a 13-6 lead. The solid start was enough to fend off a Trinity run as the Lady Cats won 25-22 and tied the game at 1-1.

Junior Megan Dockery eyes the ball as she goes for the kill against Trinity.

The third and fourth sets were carbon copies of each other and they both came down to which team had better execution. Trinity had the edge in the third, winning 25-20, but Edmonson County fought back in the fourth as they won the set 25-23 and tied the game 2-2,  forcing a fifth and final set.

The last set seemed to stay just out of reach of the Lady Cats as Trinity was able to continue just enough momentum to control the pace. Trinity won the set 15-11 and the game 3-2.

"We'd been struggling the last few days with our offense," said Head Coach Haley Garmon. "Our defense has been pretty good, but our offense needed some improvement and I was glad to see that tonight.  We gave a lot of effort. I always tell them that we don't want to be out-hustled and we weren't tonight."

Junior Shasta Smith prepares to serve against Trinity.

Senior Dina Hollis embraces the hand of Junior Kaitlyn Hyde as they substitute for one another.

Garmon said that while the offense was improved, she felt like there were some break downs in the Lady Cat defense.

"We let several go that we normally wouldn't, so we'll be working on that. We've got to do better."

She also said the girls will be working to achieve better serves. "We've got to get more dependable on that. It's hard to run up some points when we're serving them out. We need to play more together, more in sync."

Coach Garmon also said she felt like there may have been some first home-game-jitters that where paired with the emotion of playing a tough district opponent. She says it's all part of the process and still has a very positive outlook on the season.

The Lady Cats drop to 0-2 on the year and will travel to Owensboro Apollo tonight and tomorrow for an early-season tournament.