For over a decade, the goal of both the Logan County Lady Cougars and the Greenwood Lady Gators was to draw into opposite brackets in the Fourth Region Volleyball Tournament. They usually have done that, and more often than not they havemet in the regional finals with one of them moving on to state.
Once again they are in opposite brackets. Coach Jason Reels’ Lady Gators—after failing to make the regional lineup last year—are not only back but are in the Monday bracket.
Logan County, which has made the regional finals every year but two since 2002, is the defending regional champion. Coach Steven Lyne’s team beat South Warren in last year’s finals, which were held at LCHS.
This year’s tournament will be held this week at Warren Central High School.
The Lady Cougars (20-17) will play Allen County-Scottsville (17-9) in Tuesday’s lower bracket with regional favorite South Warren (27-7)virtually assured of reaching the semifinals Wednesday. South has beaten Logan 25-18, 25-17, 25-23 and 21-25, 25-21, 30-28, 25-23 in close matches this season.
Coach Julie Spurlock’s AC-S team comes into the tournament with a 17-8 record and is 11-8 against Fourth Region teams. That could be deceptive, though. The Lady Patriots have played most of their matches against the lower echelon of the region. They are 0-2 against South Warren and lost their only match with Greenwood, but they haven’t played the Lady Cougars, Bowling Green or Russell County.
They also haven’t played a schedule designed to prepare them for postseason action. They played only in only one tournament all season, and they didn’t play a single best-three-of-five match until the district tournament. In the district they beat Barren County (10-12) 25-17, 26-24, 25-13 before losing 25-15, 25-22, 25-13 to Monroe County (22-5).
On the other hand, the Lady Cougars have played Only 14 Fourth Region matches, going 9-5 in the process. They have played 20 matches in invitational tournaments against strong competition. Nine of their matches required three wins for the victory, which should help their endurance.
They are, however, just 1-5 against South Warren, Greenwood and Bowling Green. Coach Steven Lyne’s team beat BGH, which won the region two years ago, in one of two encounters with Coach Katie Carpenter’s Lady Purples. BGH is not, however, in this year’s regional. Logan’s other eight regional wins have come against 13th District teams, which have lost 88 straight matches to the Lady Cougars. Logan has won the district championship 12 straight years.
South Warren is undefeated in 14 regional encounters. Coach Justin Griffin’s team has played 17 matches in invitational tournaments, going 11-6 in them. The Lady Spartans have played 15 matches requiring three wins for a match victory.
The Lady Spartans will meet Clinton County (12-13) in Tuesday’s second semifinal.
First round matches Tuesday find Russell County (22-7) meeting 13th District runner-up Franklin-Simpson (13-13) in the first match with Monroe County (22-5) going against Greenwood (19-15).
The semifinals will be Wednesday. If Logan and South Warren meet in that second round, their match will start about 7 p.m.
The championship match will be Thursday at 6:30 p.m.