WILLIAMSBURG — David Halcomb’s Whitley County Lady Colonels are looking to accomplish a program-first during Elite Eight action of the KHSAA State Volleyball Tournament, but to do so, they must get past an Assumption team that will bring a 33-5 record into the matchup.
So far, so good for the Lady Colonels, who are 35-2 on the season.
“This has been a tremendous season for our team,” Halcomb said. “Our coaches and I knew we could be really good this season, but the girls’ work ethic and willingness to listen & improve upon their skills is what pushed us from being good to great.
“I’ve always heard that the enemy of being great is being good — these girls weren’t satisfied with just being good, they wanted to be great,” he added. “They went to work immediately after the season last year and look where we are now. We talked yesterday about how many coaches and players can do this their whole careers and never have a season like we’ve had this year. 35-2 with all the repeat championships — just really special.”
Halcomb said he hasn’t been surprised with his team’s success, and felt his team’s preseason photoshoot summed up his team’s historic run.
“We did a specialty photo earlier in the season with a Blackhawk helicopter and the caption is, battle-tested and ready to defend. I thought we were, and these girls backed it up, proving we were ready,” he said. “Even though we’ve all felt a lot of pressure at points of the season, we never really discussed it until after the region championship. We just tried to keep on having fun and I think that was a big factor in our overall success — we’ve had a blast.
“We took time on Tuesday to celebrate the big win at Wolfe County, talked about the atmosphere over there and how appreciative we are of all our fans that travelled to support us,” Halcomb added. “It was an outstanding atmosphere. We’ve had a couple good days of practice are ready to play and compete at GRC. It’s a great opportunity for us.”
With a berth into the Final Four on the line, the Lady Colonels will look to extend their win streak to 19 games. They enter the match with a .68396 RPI rating while the Lady Rockets’ RPI is .66573.
“If anyone knows anything at all about high school volleyball in Kentucky, they are familiar with Assumption,” Halcomb said. “They have won multiple state championships and according to most polls, are the top team in the state now.
“Coach Ron Kordes is a hall of fame coach,” he added. “They have three first team all-state players in Kriston Simon, Emilee Fuller and Charlotte Moriarity. The thing that impresses me the most about them is the pace in which they play. They have strong defense and passing – tenacious and they don’t let many balls hit the floor.
“We know it’s going to be a challenge for us, but our girls have been working for this all season,” Halcomb continued. “We aren’t going to concede anything. We have really good players and I believe they deserve more state-wide attention than what they’ve gotten to be honest. We will need to serve well and have to play really fast, clean volleyball. It will be important for us to get our blocks up, but we’ve done a really good job of this all year. Our out of system game will need to be great. We are excited to go play and I’m confident our girls will be ready to compete at a high level against Assumption.”
