WILLIAMSBURG — Whitley County’s run at a state championship came to an end on Monday, dropping a three-set loss to Paintsville at home.
The Lady Colonels have no reason to hang their heads after turning in a stellar season that saw them post a 29-11 mark while capturing their third consecutive 13th Region championship.
“Just first want to thank all of our fans for coming out tonight,” Whitley County coach David Halcomb said. “Our gym was about packed and I’m very appreciative of everyone’s support. The match just didn’t turn out the way we had hoped and we didn’t play well enough to give ourselves a chance. Have to give Paintsville a lot of credit — they have a very good team.
“We knew coming in that they had two extremely good hitters, but their passing was better than I expected,” he added. “I thought going in that if we could utilize the court and be precise with where we put the ball, we could neutralize their ability to hit the ball some. We just never could adjust to their quick tempo offense and struggled defending it. We had some spans where we played pretty well, just couldn’t maintain it. Even though it didn’t end the way we wanted it to, it’s been a great season for us. This will go down as one of the best seasons in the history of our volleyball program.
“Everybody around this area thought this was the year to get us, but our girls believed they could be special and they were,” Halcomb continued. “I couldn’t be more proud of my team. The improvement we made from the beginning of the season to now is phenomenal and we reached our goal of winning a region championship. This is one of my favorite groups and they have my admiration for giving me all they had this season.”
Paintsville entered the match with a 25-11 mark, after capturing the 15th Region championship with a 3-0 win over Johnson Central.
The Lady Tigers wasted little time taking control of the match against Whitley County.
Paintsville won the first set, 25-19, and jumped out to a 16-5 lead in the second set before cruising to a 25-10 win.
The Lady Tigers put the match away with a 25-16 win in the third set.
