The Aledo Ladycats advanced to the state semifinals with a 25-19, 25-18, 25-21 sweep of Birdville in the Region I championship game.
With the win, top-ranked Aledo, 41-3, will play No. 3 Highland Park, 41-8, in the state semifinals Saturday at Prosper Rock Hill High School. Highland Park’s last loss was a 5-set match to Aledo earlier this year.
In Tuesday’s sweep against Birdville, each of the three sets were fairly close until Aledo made plays down the stretch of each one.
In the opening set, Aledo it was tied 15-15 before the Ladycats went on a 10-4 run to take the 1-0 lead in the match.
Aledo started the run with 5-0 stretch to make it 20-15. Lily Lufkin had a pair of blocks for points in that stretch.
The Ladycats jumped to an early 5-1 lead in the second set and opened it to 18-10 and Birdville could get no closer than six points before Aledo made it 2-0.
Aledo fell behind 6-2 in the third set before an ace by Kailey Hamilton and kill by Alyssa Todd tied the game at 6-6. After the set was tied at 9-9, Aledo got three consecutive points to take the lead for good at 12-9.
Aledo got the win when Kailey Hamilton, who had 11 assists in the game, faked an assist when she instead hit the ball over the net and to the floor for the winning point.
Alyssa Todd led Aledo with 13 kills, while Karsyn Trott and Kaelee Barkley each had 9 kills.
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