Stunning rally ‘shows who Dunbar volleyball is,’ sparks 5th straight district title

There’s incredible.

There’s unbelievable.

And then there’s what Paul Laurence Dunbar did on its home court during the penultimate set of the 43rd District girls volleyball championship match.

Dunbar defeated Lexington Catholic 3-1 (17-25, 25-20, 29-27, 25-18) on Thursday night to win its fifth straight district title and earn a first-round home game in the 11th Region Tournament. But it effectively sealed the deal with a momentous third-set comeback.

Trailing 24-15 in the pivotal frame, the Bulldogs (20-17) scored nine unanswered to disrupt a would-be Lexington Catholic laugher. The Knights (28-4) twice got back to set point, but Dunbar responded each time before earning an opportunity to take set point at 27-26. The Bulldogs couldn’t capitalize then but did a couple plays later to claim a 29-27 win that put them in front in the scorebook and even further ahead emotionally.

“I’ve never in my 31 years had anything happen like that,” Lexington Catholic head coach Jeff Kaufmann said. “ … That’s a tough thing to come back from.”

Dunbar never trailed in the fourth set and led by 10 midway through the frame before clinching the match with relative ease. It was the Bulldogs’ first win against Lexington Catholic, the defending 11th Region champion and the No. 10 team in the most recent Kentucky Volleyball Coaches Association poll.

“I think it really shows who Dunbar volleyball is and what we’ve been working toward the whole season,” junior libero Peyton Beatty said. “We said it in the locker room, ‘We have nothing to lose, just go out and play and have fun.’”

The Bulldogs seemed to have nothing but fun during and after their decisive rally. Mia Pendley, a junior, recorded back-to-back kills that moved the score to 24-24 in the game and later had a flurry of scoring attacks as part of a 10-2 run that pushed Dunbar’s fourth-set lead to 16-6, the largest by either team in the match.

Lexington Catholic briefly looked keen to deliver payback, scoring three straight after Dunbar got to set point at 24-15, but Pendley crushed that dream with a big swing from the back row that found hardwood.

“We all just really played like we wanted to win,” said Pendley, who was still fighting tears during a postgame interview conducted about 15 minutes after the match ended. “Everybody was just doing so good.”

While winning the 43rd District is nothing new for the Bulldogs, winning in general was a bit more difficult this fall than in most years. Dunbar entered postseason play with fewer than 20 wins for the first time since 2020; that team finished with a 13-8 record against a shortened schedule due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Exempting that campaign, one has to go all the way back to the 2011 team that finished 15-19.

Those two squads and the 2005 edition (18-13) for now remain the only Dunbar girls volleyball team in coach Jennifer Morgan’s tenure, which started with that 2005 club, to not win at least 20 games.

“This is a special, fun team to coach,” Morgan said. “It is a rollercoaster. The season’s a rollercoaster, but even point to point is a rollercoaster. You can get momentum, and it can be taken from you in a second, and then you can get it back. We always tell them, ‘just weather the storm.’”

Lexington Catholic wasn’t able to steer clear of storm damage, but it only has to look as far back as last October for a reminder that momentum can quickly swing the other way. Dunbar defeated the Knights 3-0 in last year’s district-title bout, but they returned the favor in the 11th Region finals, earning their first region championship.

Kaufmann acknowledged that Dunbar completely seized control after its emotionally charged rally but thought his team performed well down the stretch. He reminded them of what they managed to do last year after another disappointing finish in the district final.

“Everything happens for a reason, and we’ve had a season where we haven’t had this ever happen to us, so that’s a good reminder,” Kaufmann said. “We go into the regional, and now we have a little bit more purpose than we would have if we’d won the district championship; if we’d won the championship we’d be a target, and now we’re not.”

The draw for the 11th Region Tournament was held Friday. First-round games will be played at district winner’s home sites at 7 p.m. Monday, with the semifinals (Tuesday) and finals (Thursday) to follow at Frankfort High School’s F.D. Wilkinson Gymnasium.

Dunbar and Catholic, which will have to travel for its first-round game, couldn’t meet again until the region finals. Morgan remembers well what happened in their region rematch last season.

“And it could happen again,” Morgan said. “Nobody expected us to win this one, so if we meet ’em again in the region tournament, are we going to be expected to win? Probably not. Even though we beat ’em here, we’re still the underdog.

“We weren’t ranked all season in the top 25 after starting there, and we took some hard hits in the beginning, but like I told ’em, that’s not what it’s about. Your season’s about where you are at the end.”

11th Region volleyball tournament

MONDAY’S QUARTERFINALS

Monday’s games at site of district champions; Tuesday’s semifinals and Thursday’s finals at Frankfort High School’s F.D. Wilkinson Gymnasium.

• Madison Southern at Great Crossing, 7 p.m.
• Sayre at Paul Laurence Dunbar, 6:30 p.m.
• Franklin County at Frederick Douglass, 7 p.m.
• Lexington Catholic at Madison Central, 7 p.m.

TUESDAY’S SEMIFINALS

• Great Crossing-Madison Southern winner vs. Paul Laurence Dunbar-Sayre winner, 6 p.m.
• Frederick Douglass-Franklin County winner vs. Madison Central-Lexington Catholic winner, 7:30 p.m.

THURSDAY’S FINALS

• Championship game, 6 p.m.

This story was originally published October 24, 2025 at 7:33 AM.