‘Weathering the storm.’ Dunbar, Great Crossing renew rivalry for region volleyball title.
For the third year in a row, Paul Laurence Dunbar and Great Crossing will battle it out for high school volleyball’s 11th Region championship.
The No. 3 Bulldogs (32-7) are defending champions and hosts of this year’s tournament finals and will play No. 5 Great Crossing (32-2) at 7 p.m. Thursday.
Great Crossing took the title against Dunbar in 2021. Dunbar won last year on the way to a state runner-up finish.
“Is this enough to call it a rivalry now? Is three in a row enough?” Great Crossing coach Adam Ivetic joked after his team’s semifinals win Tuesday against Frederick Douglass at Paul Laurence Dunbar High School.
In Tuesday’s first semifinals match, Dunbar swept Madison Central. It took four sets for Great Crossing to dispatch the Broncos.
“I feel like we came off tonight with a lot of good momentum. And we plan on carrying that into Thursday night,” said Dunbar senior Delaney Gash, an Akron commit who was recently named 11th Region player of the year by the Kentucky Volleyball Coaches Association. “It’s really just focusing on our side and weathering the storm.”
During the regular season, Dunbar topped Great Crossing three sets to one (25-16, 26-24, 19-25, 25-20) on Sept. 27.
“We learned that they have a really, really tough group of kids,” Ivetic said of Dunbar. “Their top-end talent is really tough. And if we can find ways to scheme around that, and really focus on getting our side in-system, I think we can compete with anybody in the state.
“It’s going to come down to who plays their best when the game is on the line — who plays the cleanest volleyball when we both get into the 20s.”
Dunbar’s path to the finals
Dunbar dropped a set to Franklin County (23-11) in Monday’s first round win (25-16, 25-19, 17-25, 25-9), but came out stronger Tuesday with a sweep of Madison Central (26-11), the 44th District champion.
“It’s really just communicating with each other when we lose a point,” Gash said of keeping up the team’s momentum. “(It’s) going in the huddle and just saying, ‘Hey, stay focused.’”
The 43rd District champs led Madison Central throughout the first set on the way to a 25-17 win, and then overwhelmed the Indians in set two 25-7. Madison Central fared better in the third set for a time, but eventually gave way to the sweep with a margin of 25-19.
Great Crossing stumbles, then rolls
No. 16 Frederick Douglass (24-13), the 42nd District champion, put fifth-ranked Great Crossing on its heels in the first set by jumping to a 5-0 lead on the serve of Masyn Thayer. The Warhawks couldn’t stop a 25-14 first-set loss.
But as it did in its four-set win against Lexington Catholic (25-11) in Monday’s first round, Great Crossing rallied.
“We just flipped the switch,” said Ivetic, who admitted his coaching maneuvers to start the game didn’t work for the 41st District champs. “I took ownership of that and handed the keys over to some of my senior leaders. … They got everybody on the right page.”
Great Crossing’s service game and blocking ability began to swing momentum the Warhawks’ way in the second set and they went on to a 3-1 win (14-25, 25-20, 25-21, 25-20).
“We have a great group of seniors who weren’t going to let us lose there,” said junior setter Katherine Rush, who had a number of key serve rotations. “We also just got more comfortable here and started doing the little things right and executing.”
11th Region Volleyball Tournament
At Paul Laurence Dunbar
Thursday’s finals
7 p.m.: Paul Laurence Dunbar (32-7) vs. Great Crossing (32-2)
