The Siloam Springs volleyball team celebrated its annual Teacher Appreciation Night on Monday night, and the Lady Panthers then followed that up with a 3-0 (25-15, 25-17, 25-23) sweep against Huntsville in a nonconference match inside Panther Activity Center.
It was Siloam Springs' third straight victory and an opportunity to give different players a look at hitting the ball that wouldn't normally get to in a varsity match, according to head coach Rose Cheek-Willis.
"We wanted to try and get everybody to hit," she said. "We need to be able to use more than just our normal hitters."
The win was Siloam Springs' second over Huntsville this season. The Lady Panthers (8-9) defeated the Lady Eagles 3-0 on Sept. 20 at Charles Berry Gymnasium in Huntsville.
"Huntsville is really athletic," Cheek-Willis said. "They have a really good middle (blocker). She could swing hard and mix it up."
The Lady Panthers rolled out to a big lead in game one behind two aces from Chloe Price, an ace each from Shaylon Sharp and Madison Cooper and a combo block from Katie Kendrick and Allie Bowman.
Two Huntsville hitting errors gave Siloam Springs a 12-4 lead, and the Lady Panthers rolled to the 25-15 win in game one.
Game two, however, saw the Lady Panthers get in a 10-3 hole and forced Cheek-Willis to burn an early timeout to right the ship.
An ace from Andrea Lowry, kills and a combo block from Sharp and Cooper helped the Lady Panthers even things up at 13-13. Huntsville scored the next two points to go up 15-13, but Siloam Springs scored six out of the next seven, including three kills from Bowman.
Ellie Lampton chipped in a pair of kills down the stretch and Meg Gray served an ace to end game two 25-17.
The Lady Panthers fell behind in game three as Huntsville's Mattie Thompson led the offensive charge with three kills in a four-point surge as Huntsville (11-9) took a 10-7 lead.
Siloam Springs clawed back to tie the match at 13 and took the lead for good 14-13 on a Price ace.
Huntsville never would go away in set three, closing to within 23-22 late in the match and forcing Cheek-Willis to call another timeout.
However, Huntsville served the next ball out of bounds and Siloam Springs finished the sweep on the next point when Huntsville hit the ball into the net.
"One thing I was real proud of was when we were in a hole we'd find a way to come back," Cheek-Willis said.
Thompson led Huntsville with six kills and four aces, while Destinee Harmon had four aces. Dezeray Sulffridge and Delanie Tipton each had nine digs.
Lowry led the Lady Panthers defensively with 39 digs to go with one ace, earning praise from her head coach.
"She's playing real well," Cheek-Willis said of her senior libero. "I'm very proud of her. She's playing like I would want my libero to play."
Kelsey Lewis had 10 digs for the Lady Panthers.
Shaylon Sharp led offensively with 10 kills, and nine defensive digs to go with two aces and one block assist.
Price had six kills, 11 digs, five aces, one block assist and she dished out 18 assists.
Lampton had seven kills and one ace, while Bowman had four kills and two block assists.
Gray had seven assists and three aces, while Cooper had two aces, two block assists and one solo block. Kendrick had two block assists and one kill.
The Lady Panthers served 14 aces on the night.
Siloam Springs was scheduled to return to action Tuesday night at Harrison in a 6A/5A-1 Conference match. Results were not available at presstime.
The Lady Panthers return to action on Thursday at home in a conference match against Clarksville.
Sports on 09/28/2016