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The McCracken County Lady Mustangs claimed their 12th straight volleyball region championship on Wednesday night, after defeating Community Christian Academy in three straight sets. Head coach Chancie Coleman is proud of the effort and success her squad has had this year.

“It’s pretty amazing. This team has been through a lot of things this year,” Coleman said. “We lost five seniors, so while I have mostly juniors and seniors on this team, I only had four that had varsity experience at all. To come out and win a region championship with a team as young as they are is great.”

Despite the score being 3-0, the Lady Mustangs had to fight in this one. They have not lost a set to a region opponent all year, but CCA has been their strongest opponent. The sets went in order of 25-9, 25-14, 25-15. A majority of the points were decided after long rallies of great defensive play by both sides.

The Lady Warriors tallied 39 digs throughout the match, with Libero Hadley Carroll leading with seven. The Lady Mustangs ended with a total of nine blocks, with Emily Hatfield and Reagan Hill leading the way with three a piece.

The third and final set was where the intensity picked up from both squads. CCA was able to put up 15 points, which matches the most a team has put on McCracken throughout the tournament. There were not many one possession points in this set, with most every point having to be perfectly executed by each side.

This title keeps the streak alive for McCracken County at 12, winning the region championship every year since the school was formed. The Lady Mustangs will now host the winner of the Third Region tournament on next Monday, November 4 for the first round of sub-state. The Third Region champs will is still up in the air, Owensboro Catholic, Owensboro, Trinity, or Whitesville still in contention.

“We talked about how speed of the game is really going to be important for us,” Coleman said. “When we play teams that can run faster, sometimes we can react too slow, and does all sorts of things to our defense. So we really try to speed up practices and play for our games.”

After the match, the All-Region Tournament team as well as the Region 1 MVP were named. Here are the honorees listed by school.

McCracken County — Addison Hart (Region 1 MVP), Elizabeth Gilbert, Taylor Dugan, Emily Hatfield

Community Christian Academy — Lauren Fugate, Katie Truitt, Natalie Truitt

Murray — Macy Chiles, Allie Vonahme

Marshall County — Laney Yates, Kylie Merrick

Hickman County — Hannah Ray

Carlisle County- Macee Hogancamp

Graves County — Audrey Smith

Mayfield — Neely Flowers