BY CLIFF SMELLEY
Union County High School advanced to the semifinals of the District 6-Rural volleyball tournament with its 3-0 (25-11, 25-8, 25- 16) win over sixth seed Taylor County on Oct. 13.
The third seed Tigers (19-7), Swho are on a seven-match winning streak, will now play second seed Lafayette (15-5) on Tuesday, Oct. 14, at 7 p.m. at UCHS. That match follows a 5 p.m. semifinal match between top seed Branford (18-4) and fifth seed Bell (11-15), which will also be played at UCHS.
Union County will host the championship match, which will take place Thursday, Oct. 16, at 7 p.m. between the two semifinal winners.
Bella Johns had a service ace during a 3-0 span that helped the Tigers begin to pull away from Taylor (8-15) in the first set of the Oct. 13 quarterfinal match. The ace put Union up 15-7.
It was 16-8 when Union scored five points with Mallory Waugh serving. Waugh had an ace as the Tigers built a 21-8 lead.
Jailyn Simmons and Morgan Smith each had a kill off a Waugh assist to put Union up 24-10 before the Tigers won 25-11 on a Taylor attack error.
An 8-0 run that included a Johns ace and a Waugh kill gave Union a 17-5 lead in the second set. The Tigers closed it out with seven straight points with Waugh serving. The run included an ace and a Shaley Maloney kill before Waugh set up Simmons for the game-winning kill.
Union held a 17-12 lead in the third set before scoring five points with Abby Williams serving. Simmons and Smith each had a kill, while Williams had an ace as the Tigers took a 22-12 lead.
Smith and Waugh each had a kill to force side-out in the latter stages of the set, with the winning point coming off a Taylor service error.
