Siloam Springs volleyball coach Rose Cheek-Willis feels her team will be much improved in 2016 after a disappointing 9-25 campaign in 2015, but the Lady Panthers had their hands full Monday on opening night against Class 7A runner-up Springdale Har-Ber.
The Lady Wildcats -- 28-6-2 in 2015 -- shook off some early first-game jitters and swept the Lady Panthers 3-0 (25-16, 25-12, 25-16) in both teams' season openers inside the Panther Activity Center.
Har-Ber and Siloam Springs battled to a 10-10 tie in the first game before the Lady Wildcats took control with an 8-2 run. It was all Har-Ber after that as the Lady Wildcats opened up commanding leads in games two and three to complete the sweep.
Siloam Springs was on the wrong end of several sweeps last season, but this time the defeat was a little easier to swallow knowing the caliber of competition the Lady Panthers were playing.
And added to that is the Lady Panthers never quit fighting, Cheek-Willis said. Even down 14-3 in game three, Siloam Springs pulled within 23-15 after a Ellie Lampton kill before Har-Ber finished them off.
"I'm not disappointed in our kids," Cheek-Willis said. "They kept fighting. There were a couple of times where it looked like they might have wanted to give up, but we wouldn't let them."
Har-Ber led 9-5 in the opening game when Siloam Springs reeled off four straight points to tie on a tip kill from Chloe Price, a combo block from Hadlee Hollenback and Price and two straight aces from Meg Gray.
"One thing with my girls we talk about confidence all the time," said Har-Ber coach Shyrah Schisler. "Everyone has first game nerves, and it was good to get those out of the way tonight."
Har-Ber's Klaire Trainor and Lampton then traded kills to knot the score at 10.
But the Lady Wildcats started their big run with two hitting errors out of bounds against Siloam Springs to go up 12-10 and before long they had opened up an 18-12 lead.
Har-Ber may have had some first-game nerves, but you wouldn't have known it from the play of junior outside hitter Lauren Thompson.
Thompson led the Lady Wildcats with 16 kills, and Trainor added nine kills.
Senior setter Arika Johnson -- who started as a sophomore at Siloam Springs but transferred to Har-Ber for her junior year and missed the 2015 season with an injury -- had a strong night with 28 assists and four aces.
Schisler was happy to see Johnson play well in her return to her former school.
"Arika's a really good player and a great kid," Schisler said. "She also does a great job of being a leader."
Senior Emily Doss led Har-Ber (1-0) defensively with 18 digs, and senior blocker Jaden Williams had three blocks.
Price, a sophomore led Siloam Springs (0-1) with eight kills, seven assists and 14 digs. She also had one solo block, one block assist and one ace.
Junior Shaylon Sharp had five kills and 16 digs and one ace, while senior Emily Lowry posted 30 digs for the Lady Panthers, and senior Meg Gray added nine assists and one ace.
Lampton had two kills and one ace and junior Allie Bowman had two kills. Hollenback had one block assist.
The Lady Panthers returned to action on Tuesday night at Bentonville High. Results were not available at presstime.
Siloam Springs will play its third match in four days on Thursday when it welcomes Rogers High to the PAC. A sophomore match is scheduled to begin around 4:30 p.m., followed by the junior varsity match and the varsity match beginning around 6:30 p.m.
Sports on 08/24/2016