Lady Mustangs clinch share of SHAC Div. I championship; sweep Whiteoak
DODSONVILLE — Though they aren’t finished yet with conference play with one match left on the schedule for the regular season, the Lynchburg-Clay Lady Mustangs have clinched no worse than a share of the Division I Southern Hills Athletic Conference championship.
They clinched that share of the title on Tuesday night as they swept Highland County rival Whiteoak in three sets at LCHS. The Lady Mustangs won by scores of 25-15, 25-16 and 25-17.
LC was led in assists by Makayla Creed with 30 on the night, while teammate Shelby Marshall had a total of 21 kills to lead the Lady Mustangs against WHS. Tylar Griffith finished with 12 kills and 12 digs, while Brittany Ernst finished with 12 digs in the conference victory.
The win by the Lady Mustangs puts them at 16-5 overall and 11-1 in the SHAC with one conference match remaining in the regular season. That match will be for the outright Div. I title for LC when they host the Eastern Brown Lady Warriors.
Earlier the season (Sept. 2), LC won in four sets over the Lady Warriors at EBHS right before the Highland County Fair.
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“The girls are pretty focused on winning the Division I title outright now,” LC head coach Mark Faust said. “I think we’ve done really well. In my mind, I knew we could be where we are at, and we are very happy where we are at this particular point of the season.
“We have a chance to win the title outright in Division I, and we have a chance to win the sectional championship. So we are right where we wanted to be.”
In the match versus the Lady Wildcats on Tuesday night, LC not only won by 10 points in the opening set, but in the second set they continued from where they left off, building at one point in the set a 5-1 lead.
As the set continued, LC led by a score of 15-8, and once a serve by Griffith added to the LC advantage, they were in the lead by a 17-9 score.
WHS came back with a point from Lexi Jones, but later LC answered with a kill from Marshall, extending the LC lead to eight points at 19-11. Serves from Jones by WHS eventually made it a 20-13 deficit for the Lady ’Cats.
LC was too strong as the match continued, with LC eventually pulling away for a 25-16 win.
Set three was a lot closer with the score being tied four times, with the last time being 7-7. Once LC broke that tied score, they led the rest of the way with solid serving by Mia McCammon, including an ace to make it a 12-7 advantage. LC eventually took a 17-7 lead as McCammon served during those 10 consecutive points.
During that span of scoring, Marshall had three kills, and Creed also helped at the net with a point.
WHS had a comeback with help from Jones and MaKayla Risner, but LC did not relinquish the lead and won by a 25-17 score for the sweep.
Following the win, Faust also spoke about the No. 4 seed LC drew for the postseason. LC will face No. 5 Piketon at home on Saturday, Oct. 22 at 4 p.m.
“I knew it was going to be between us and Piketon for the fourth seed,” he said. “I’m happy they have to come to us since we had to go to them last year.”