Volleyball Falls to Jackson, Finishes as District Runner-Up

By Leopard Nation · Published October 29, 2015 · Updated October 30, 2015

Louisville Leopards Volleyball 2015 District Runner-Up

Jackson 25-25-25, Louisville 22-22-20

The 4th seeded Louisville Leopards Volleyball Team gave the top seeded Jackson Polar Bears all they could handle in each of the three sets they played Thursday Evening at Lake High School. Jackson swept the DI Uniontown District Championship 25-22, 25-22, 25-20. With the loss, the Lady Leopards finish the season with a final record of 21-4.

Grace Jackson led Louisville with a team-high 14 digs and was the Leopards top server with 9 points & 1 ace. Other Louisville leaders included Paige Haren with 24 assists, Emily Hollifield with 4 blocks, and Georgia Kiko with 8 kills.

Louisville and Jackson went back and forth in the first and second sets. The two squads played to a 21-21 tie before the Polar Bears went on a 3-0 run & eventually won the set 25-22. The Leopards fell behind the Polar Bears 13-8 early on in the second set, but rallied back to get within 23-21. However, the outcome turned out the same with the identical final count of 25-22.

Louisville jumped out with an early 5-1 lead to start the third set, but Jackson answered back with a 6-2 run to knot the game at 7-7. The Leopards last held a lead at 9-8, before the Polar Bears pulled ahead to lead 17-12. Louisville would pull to within three twice, but that’s as close as they would get as the Jackson Dynasty of the DI Uniontown District continued.

The Polar Bears have now swept their past 20 Sectional/District Tournament opponents. In those previous 19 tournament contests, no team had scored more than 55 set points (GlenOa in the District Championship last season) in a single match against Jackson. Louisville scored 64 set points Thursday).

The Polar Bears have not lost in 61 consecutive Sectional/District Tournament sets overall. Out of all of those, no one has come as close to beating Jackson as Louisville did in the first two sets Thursday (25-22, 25-22). That is, except the same Leopards who were edged by the Polar Bears 25-23 in the third set of the 2013 District Semifinals.

The 21 wins by Louisville is the second most in team history only behind he 2000 team that finished 23-2. The Lady Leopards .840 winning percentage for this season is also the second highest in team history behind that 2000 team. Louisville is now 9-9 in tournament play since entering Division I back in 2007.