Off to their best start in school history, the Harlan County Lady Bears ran their record to 5-0 with a dominating 25-8, 25-5, 25-4 win Tuesday over visiting Harlan.
Harlan County has lost only one set in five victories, topping their previous best of four straight wins to start a season in 2017.
“We are so proud of our girls. They were a little slow getting started but took over the game and got the job done. It definitely feels good to get a district win,” said Harlan County assistant coach Gregory York. “This year so far has been such an experience. These girls worked so hard in the off season and are now having fun playing the game they love. It’s crazy we have such a selfless team. They share the ball and do what needs to be done. We have some young girls who are starting to get more comfortable in their positions, and you can really tell by how they are playing. The goal is for us to just keep improving every day and give it our best.”
The Lady Bears raced to a 5-0 lead in the first set. Harlan cut the deficit to 10-6 before HCHS regained the momentum and closed the set strong.
Harlan County closed the second set with four straight points on Savannah Hill service points and kills by Kalista Dunn and Kylee Hoiska.
HCHS opened the third set with 11 straight points before Harlan ended the drought. The Lady Bears closed the set with a 9-1 run on kills by Dunn and Madilynn Nolan and aces from Ashton Evans and Hill.
Evans and Dunn each recorded nine aces in the win with Ashlynn Willamson adding one, Dunn also had 12 kills and nine digs. Evans added seven kills and two digs. Williamson had three assists and three digs. Hill recorded 27 assists and two digs. Hoiska had seven kills and seven digs. Nolan added four kills and one assist. Sophie Day and Alexis Adams each added one kill.
No statistics were available for Harlan.
Harlan County won 21-11, 21-11 in junior varsity play and 21-15, 22-20 in freshman action.
The Lady Bears return to district acton Thursday at Bell County in a rematch of last year’s district finals. Harlan plays Red Bird on Thursday.
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Harlan County won 25-16, 25-16 25-12 on Monday at Knox Central.
Kylee Hoiska led the Lady Bears with 12 kills, nine digs, four service aces and one block. Kalista Dunn had nine kills, 14 digs, five aces and one assist. Savannah Hill contributed 22 assists, along with three aces, three digs and one kill. Ashton Evans added eight kills, seven digs, three aces and one assist. Ashlynn Williamson had five digs. Sophie Day and Madilynn Nolan each added one kill.
