Dunbar, Tates Creek volleyball rally to wins, clinch bids to state tournament

Paul Laurence Dunbar could have wilted after getting clobbered in set three of its 7th Region semifinal match versus Henry Clay on Wednesday, going down two games to one against the state runner-up in last year’s inaugural KHSAA boys volleyball campaign.

But the Bulldogs stayed rooted in coach Abigail Shafer’s season-long mantra — be a strong palm tree against strong winds, not a brittle pine — and bounced back for a narrow game-four win (25-22) at Franklin County High School. They then turned in a crushing effort of their own in the all-or-nothing fifth set to advance to Friday’s championship game and earn a berth to the state tournament.

Dunbar (13-9) jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the final game and never trailed. The Bulldogs scored eight of the game’s final 10 points — the last on an attacking error — after Henry Clay (23-9) pulled to within 7-5.

“I put my head down for a sec, but then I saw my teammates putting their heads down around me,” said Esteban Diaz, a senior and No. 2 in kills across the state entering Wednesday (282). “I realized I had to put my head up for them and for the people watching from the stands. I stepped up and started being a captain.”

Dunbar recovered after a sluggish start in game one, overcoming a 10-3 deficit to force a back-and-forth affair. Henry Clay standout Gray Millar, the state’s leader in kills (303) coming into the match, took over down the stretch to give the Blue Devils a 25-23 decision.

The Bulldogs led by as many as six points in game two before Henry Clay got back into it at the end. Diaz had the final two kills of the set, delivering a 25-22 Dunbar win.

As it did in the opener, Henry Clay bolted to a big lead in game three (8-3) and this time didn’t let up. A 10-2 run put the Blue Devils ahead 18-6 before they cruised to a 25-17 win.

“To be honest, we weren’t talking,” Diaz said. “Balls were just hitting the ground with nobody touching them. Once we started focusing on the points and talking, that’s when we started getting balls up enough for Luis (Mata) to set wherever he wanted. … He’s the brains of the operation.”

“Coach has been saying a lot lately, ‘be a palm tree, go with the flow,’” said Mata, a sophomore who ranks among the state’s top passers (461 assists, No. 15 entering Wednesday). “We were a pine tree for a bit.”

Dunbar led much of game four before briefly falling down 18-16. The Bulldogs scored five unanswered before giving up three straight, then capitalized on a service error and two more kills from Diaz to close out a 25-22 victory.

Henry Clay was 7-1 against 11th Region teams coming into the match; during the regular season it fell 3-1 at Western Hills, which Dunbar eliminated in the first round Monday. The Bulldogs were 6-6 in region play this season and 0-3 against Henry Clay since the KHSAA began sanctioning volleyball.

The Blue Devils also eliminated Dunbar in last season’s semifinal.

“They struggled with energy all throughout the season so that’s just been the main thing: weathering the storm, getting through it, being a palm tree and not a pine tree,” Shafer said. “ … They weathered the storm one point at a time and that’s why it went our way.”

Tates Creek turns tide vs. Lafayette

Lafayette took the first set rather convincingly in its 7th Region semifinal bout with Tates Creek, but the Commodores rallied for a 3-1 match victory (16-25, 22-25, 27-25, 25-21) to punch their first ticket to the region final and state tournament.

The Generals (13-9) were on the precipice of taking a 2-1 advantage in the match. After trailing most of the game and facing a 24-21 cliff, Tates Creek responded with six of the final seven points in set three to extend the game and flip the script.

The Commodores (17-5) rode that momentum into set four, jumping out to a 5-1 lead before the Generals settled in. Lafayette briefly led down the stretch but Creek closed on a 6-2 run.

“We finished strong and executed,” Commodores senior Shayal Subba said. “The first set we were all just nervous. Everybody was in their head. By the second set we came out with big energy and more focus, everybody was locked in.”

Tates Creek entered the postseason ranked 10th in the overall statewide RPI, highest among all 7th Region teams. It split two regular-season meetings with Dunbar, taking a 3-0 match on the road March 19 and dropping a 2-0 series at Franklin County as part of a day-long round-robin event in which it played four total matches.

“We’re gonna try to keep the same energy we had today on Friday,” Subba said.

Lafayette was the 7th Region’s other state-tournament representative last season. The Generals defeated Pikeville in their debut before falling to Henry Clay, to whom they’d lost just four days earlier in the 7th Region finals.