Last season, it was Central Hardin who avenged a district championship loss to Elizabethtown to win the regional tournament.
This time it was the Lady Panthers who played spoiler.
Though the Lady Bruins claimed the district 15 championship, Elizabethtown won a hard fought match to fend off Central Hardin 2-1 (25-20, 21-25, 25-20).
The win sent the Lady Panthers to their first ever state tournament.
“This is so huge!” senior setter Kristen Ballard said. “I’ve only been here since two years ago but two years ago we had an opportunity to go. Last year was a heart break. I’m so excited and I know the rest of our team is.”
Central Hardin came within a point in the third set at 19-18 before Elizabethtown ended the set and match on a 6-2 run.
“We had a lot of strong hits, a lot of strong sets,” Ballard said. “In games in the past, we haven’t always done that. We’d get on a run, then we’d stop and relax. This time every single point, we played so hard.”
First year Lady Panthers coach Tim Hinkle said his team never backed down throughout the match.
“Serving, Alisa Dickerson that third game, served great for us,” Hinkle said. “The girls did everything they could to protect the server. The other difference was a lot of times when we were serving aggressively, they were free-balling it over and we got a good hit on it and put the pressure on. That’s when we’re good, when we can put the pressure on and be aggressive.”