Siloam Springs got its communication problems fixed Monday night, and the Lady Panthers were able to finish off Farmington for a 3-1 (25-10, 23-25, 25-11, 25-17) victory in 5A/6A District 1 volleyball action at Panther Activity Center.
The Lady Panthers (7-10, 4-2) overcame some early passing issues and went on a 22-4 run to smash the Lady Cardinals (3-5, 2-1) in the opening set. Senior Kenlie Noel had three kills in the stretch, junior Chloe Price served a pair of aces and senior Allie Bowman finished off the set with two kills at the end.
Siloam Springs appeared to be in control of the second set, but multiple serving and hitting errors kept the Lady Cardinals close and Farmington got kills from Kaydyn Truitt, Kally Stout and Brittany Pittman to take a 23-21 lead. Siloam Springs got two straight kills from Shaylon Sharp to tie the set at 23, but the Lady Panthers served it out of bounds and couldn't handle the next ball as Farmington won the second set 25-23.
All through set two and during timeouts, Siloam Springs head coach Joellen Wright told the Lady Panthers that their communication levels were not good, and she addressed it again between games two and three.
"We got quiet," Wright said. "The last thing I told them before we went out for game three was, 'If this was Greenwood, would we be talking it up? We don't respect our opponent and we need to because we just got beat."
The Lady Panthers fixed the issue in set three.
Junior Ellie Lampton hammered six kills and served two aces and Price had two more aces as the Lady Panthers jumped out to a big lead in the third set.
"They did fix it," Wright said. "I am proud they came back out and talked it up a bit more."
Siloam Springs established control in game four as well, and production came from all over the field.
Lampton, Noel and Katie Kendrick had early kills, while Madison Hall served an ace followed by kills from Bowman and Sharp. Noel served two aces for an 11-6 lead, and the Lady Panthers rolled from there.
Farmington head coach Marshall Ward said the Lady Panthers' serving, though they missed some, made the difference in keeping the Lady Cardinals off balance.
"Siloam Springs mixes up their serves better than anyone we've faced thus far," Ward said. "We've played some teams that have served really strong, but it's kind of the same serve, same hard topspin. Whereas Siloam really went hard to serve deep, then next one short. By mixing up their serves, they really kept our passes out of system. We weren't able to use our middles at all. Then of course, they have a really good offense. They passed very well. They stayed in their system and moved the ball around very well."
Camryn Journagan had three aces and 14 digs for Farmington, while Truitt had five kills and 13 digs.
Lampton and Sharp each had 10 kills to lead Siloam Springs. Lampton had nine digs, three solo blocks, two block assists and three aces, while Sharp had 11 digs and three aces.
Bowman finished with nine kills, while Price had six kills, eight digs, five aces, one solo block, two block assists and 35 assists.
Reigan Brown and Noel each had four kills, with Noel adding five digs and three aces.
Kendrick had one kill, while Kailee Thomason has six digs and Kirsten Loftis four digs.
"We did hit it well," Wright said. "Very balanced offense. I liked how at times we passed on the money for those pretty plays. I saw some combos tonight that I hadn't seen offensively. ... When we can pass, we can put the ball down."
Siloam Springs returned to action on Tuesday night for a nonconference match against Huntsville. Results were not available at presstime.
Siloam Springs and Farmington will turn around and play again on Thursday, this time at Cardinal Arena in Farmington.
Sports on 09/20/2017