By Terry Boehmker
NKyTribune sports reporter
Five years ago, Heather Kidd was one of the moms who organized a boys volleyball club team at Ryle High School. She’s now head coach of the Raiders, who have learned to play together so well that they’re one win away from repeating as Region 6 champions in the second year of sanctioned state playoffs.
“We have a distinct advantage over most of the teams in our region due to us having played for five years,” Kidd said after Ryle defeated Simon Kenton, 3-0, in the region semifinals on Thursday.
This was the first season for boys volleyball at Simon Kenton. The Pioneers have one of the region’s best hitters in senior Nehemiah Kaai, but they ended up losing to Ryle, 25-14, 25-21, 25-16.
“Volleyball is a momentum sport, and I just think we couldn’t hold the momentum on our side quite long enough,” said Simon Kenton coach Lacey Maley. “We just had too many errors, but we’ll be back next year even stronger.”
Simon Kenton ends its inaugural season with a 10-5 record. Ryle will take a nine-match winning streak and 16-3 record into the Region 6 championship match against Oldham County (20-3) at noon on Saturday at Simon Kenton.
Oldham County defeated Walton-Verona, 25-14, 25-16, 25-16, in Thursday’s other semifinal match.
Both of the region finalists advance to the first round of the state tournament next week. Last year, Ryle defeated Oldham County, 3-0, to take the title and they both went 0-1 in the state tournament.
“I think Oldham County is gunning for us after we beat them in four sets at their place (this season),” said coach Kidd. “They are a solid team and when we beat them it was close. We had to battle point-for-point with them.”
In the first set of the semifinal win over Simon Kenton, Ryle took a 13-3 lead with junior middle hitter Max Kidd, the coach’s son, getting two kills and one service ace.
The Raiders were ahead, 21-14, in the second set. Simon Kenton rallied and cut it to 23-21 on a block by sophomore Mitchell Ball, but hitting errors gave the final two points to Ryle.
In the third set, Simon Kenton opened up a 14-9 lead on back-to-back kills by Kaai. Ryle called a much-needed timeout to settle down and then closed the match with a 16-2 run. Max Kidd led that final charge with two blocks, two aces and one kill.
Coach Kidd said she called the timeout to remind her players of their game plan.
“We needed to refocus on where we’re trying to put the ball and who we’re trying to keep the ball away from,” she said. “Once they were brought back to that game plan that we had at the beginning of the match, that’s when things went back to our side.”
Max Kidd had seven kills and five aces in the semifinal match. Kaai finished with 12 kills and had more than 200 during his one-year varsity career.
“I couldn’t be more proud for a first-year program,” coach Maley said of the Pioneers. “Getting to be part of something that lays the groundwork and sets the tone for following years, that’s always a privilege, win or lose.”