‘They took care of business.’ Dunbar tops Great Crossing for 11th Region volleyball title.
Returning six players with starting experience from last season’s 11th Region runner-up, Paul Laurence Dunbar entered 2022 as the highest ranked public school volleyball team in the state.
The No. 5 Bulldogs will enter next week’s KHSAA State Volleyball Tournament with that same distinction after a 3-0 sweep of No. 19 Great Crossing in the 11th Region Tournament championship on Thursday at Bryan Station High School.
“I’m just so proud of them because it’s hard knowing you have the bullseye the whole season and they literally did what they needed to do,” Dunbar Coach Jenni Morgan said. “They set this goal … We were building every day to make sure that we were better than the last time we played.”
Dunbar’s first region crown since 2018 came at the expense of the defending champion Warhawks, who last year became the first non-Lexington school to claim the region title since 2004.
In 2021, Dunbar stormed to a 25-16 first-set win but faltered thereafter to lose in four. In 2022, Dunbar didn’t let up. The Bulldogs jumped on top of Great Crossing and established considerable cushions in each of the first two sets.
Dunbar sets the tone
The Bulldogs’ first three points of the first set prompted a Warhawks timeout. Great Crossing regrouped to tie it 5-5, but later, a service run by Dunbar libero Mia Telechbush helped push the advantage to 17-10 and an eventual 25-21 first-set win.
A double block by Delaney Gash and Nyla Gaines during a second-set rally exemplified Dunbar’s dominance in that frame as they built a 20-9 lead on the way to a 25-16 set win.
“We just really had to set the tone for the entire match and make sure it was our game and our speed and we weren’t playing their game,” said Telechbush, who was named the tournament’s most valuable player.
Dunbar hitter Ava Jackson, recently named the Kentucky Volleyball Coaches Association 11th Region player of the year, finished off each of the first two sets with emphatic, court-cratering kills.
“Starting with those leads in the beginning built a lot of momentum, and especially kind of foreshadowed the sweeping,” Jackson said.
Great Crossing fought point-for-point in the third set, but three straight points on Gash’s serve provided a 20-17 cushion Dunbar rode to close out the match 25-21.
“They took us out of our game that third set and (we) just had to breathe and relax,” Morgan said. “We talked about it, ‘Remember, they’re going to make runs and you’re going to make mistakes. But you’ve been in these situations before, so you know you can get yourself out of them if you guys play together and believe.’ And that’s what they did.”
Great Crossing’s achievement; Dunbar’s next step
Great Crossing (29-8) lost nine seniors from last year’s region champs, but 11th Region coach of the year Adam Ivetic’s group won the 41st District title for the fourth straight time and reached another region finals.
“I feel like Georgetown has grabbed people by the ears and said ‘pay attention,’ because we’re good,” Ivetic said. “Back-to-back region title appearances playing a bunch of Lexington teams, I feel like that shows it.”
Next, Dunbar (30-10) will host 12th Region champion West Jessamine (26-14) in the first round of the state tournament at 7 p.m. Monday before the bracket moves to George Rogers Clark High School in Winchester for the quarterfinals, semifinals and finals Nov. 3-4.
The Bulldogs swept No. 16 West Jessamine 25-23, 25-20, 25-18 in Nicholasville on Sept. 13. There’s no time to rest in preparation. Dunbar planned to go right back to practice Friday.
Morgan has seen her players take on some of the toughest teams inside and outside of Kentucky this season. She’s hoping the poise and determination they’ve displayed so far carries over into next week.
“They are just consistent. Never in this season have I ever seen that they have truly wavered,” Morgan said. “Every time they’ve literally gone out and competed. And when they needed to take care of business, they took care of business.”
All-Tournament Team
Mia Telechbush (MVP); Ava Jackson, Isabela Haggard, Delaney Gash, Dunbar; Riley Ellison, Makiyah Justice, Jazzy Calvert, Great Crossing; Grace Ginding, Emily Sue Watts, Scott County; Jackie Jarosz, Allie Kronenberg, Lexington Catholic; Sophie Dufour, Franklin County; Julia Bingham, Madison Southern; Lily Dobbins, Madison Central; Jamison Gordon, Frederick Douglass.
Monday
KHSAA State Volleyball Tournament first round
7 p.m.: West Jessamine at Paul Laurence Dunbar
