By Terry Boehmker
NKyTribune sports reporter
Scott volleyball players were in the right frame of mind going into this week’s 10th Region tournament as the defending champions.
“I think we were pretty confident going in, but expecting to win, no,” said coach Andrea Sullivan. “We knew we’d have to play hard and play at a high level in order to repeat. Our girls were ready and came out prepared to do that.”
The Eagles won all three of their regional tournament matches in three sets, including a 25-12, 25-10, 25-15 victory over Bishop Brossart in the championship final on Thursday night at Harrison County High School.
Scott will take a 37-3 record and 13-match winning streak into next week’s state tournament at Valley High School in Louisville. The Eagles’ first-round opponent will be 8th Region champion North Oldham (24-12) at 11 a.m. Friday, Nov. 6.
Jessica Tapp, one of five seniors on the Scott roster, was the team’s leading hitter in the regional tournament with 38 kills in three matches. She scored on 15 hits in the championship final against Brossart.
Tapp was named to the regional all-tournament team along with sophomore Kelly Franxman and senior Holly Kallmeyer of Scott. In the regional final, Franxman had seven kills and Kallmeyer had 11 defensive digs.
“Kelly did a phenomenal job with her serving all week and we always say Holly does the dirty work,” coach Sullivan said. “She’s the one who’s all over the place. She works hard on defense and works hard out of the middle. She doesn’t get sets a whole lot out of the middle, but she still works to try and get the block. She did a great job serving for us as well.”
Sophomore setter Jordan Tapp, Jessica’s younger sister, had 26 assists in the win over Brossart to give her a total of 72 in the tournament. She’s a first-year starter who filled the only vacancy in the Eagles’ lineup when the season started.
“Anytime you lose your setter it’s like losing your quarterback (in football) so it was obviously a big blow,” Sullivan said. “But one good thing was (Jordan) had a sister on the team and that helped her feel comfortable stepping into that spot.”
Scott made it to the semifinals in last year’s state tournment before losing to eventual champion Louisville Mercy. This year, the Eagles are in the same bracket as Mercy once again along with two other perennial state powers, Notre Dame and Louisville Assumption.
Sullivan will be counting on the five seniors who led the Eagles to the 10th Region title to step up to the challenge once again in the state tournament.
“When you have five seniors, and they’ve been there the year before, they know what it takes,”the coach said. “They led us through and got the underclassmen working with them. It was just a great team effort. That’s all I could say about the last three days.”
