Siloam Springs volleyball coach Rose Cheek-Willis wants her team to play aggressive from the opening serve, and the Lady Panthers did that Thursday night.
Siloam Springs opened up a big lead in the first game against Farmington and rolled to a 3-0 (25-12, 25-19, 25-23) sweep of the Lady Cardinals in a 6A/5A-1 Conference match at Panther Activity Center.
Serving aggressively has been a point of emphasis ever since the Lady Panthers lost 3-0 to Greenwood at home on Sept. 15. Cheek-Willis said she wanted to go in attack mode even if that meant some service errors.
"Some of our girls want to play it safe," Cheek-Willis said, "and we can't be safe. We have to be in attack mode as soon as we step on the court. I think it reflected in our play tonight. The tempo was what we wanted."
Siloam Springs (7-9, 5-2) jumped all over Farmington for a 6-1 lead after a pair of kills from junior Shaylon Sharp, kills from junior Allie Bowman and sophomore Chloe Price and an ace from senior Andrea Lowry.
Farmington scored seven of the next 11 points to pull within 11-8, but Siloam Springs went on an 8-0 run to take control of game one.
Sophomore Ellie Lampton started the surge with a kill and Sharp followed with a kill.
Lampton then served two straight aces, followed by kills from Price and Sharp. Two more aces from Lampton gave the Lady Panthers a 19-8 lead on their way to a 25-12 win.
Siloam Springs jumped out to another big lead in game two, taking a 7-1 lead. Farmington pulled within 13-12 aided by a block and kill from Anna Dutton and a combination block from Ella Wilson and Callie Harper.
Siloam Springs answered with a 5-1 run as Bowman had a pair of kills, a setter dump from Price and a kill and ace from Sharp.
Madison Cooper served an ace to make it 21-16, and Price had three kills in the last four points to take a 25-19 win.
Farmington came out the aggressor in game three, taking a 9-4 lead and forcing Siloam Springs to call timeout after a kill from Claudia Oxford.
The Lady Panthers eventually caught the Lady Cardinals and after trading leads, Siloam Springs took the lead for good at 19-18. A combo block from Lampton and Cooper and two straight kills from Lampton put Siloam Springs up 23-18.
Cheek-Willis tried to sub in some junior varsity players to finish the match, but Farmington got within 24-23 and the Lady Panthers put back in their top players. Farmington, however, served the next ball into the net for the match-winning points for Siloam Springs.
The sweep was a sharp contrast to the first time the two teams played on Aug. 30 at Cardinal Arena in Farmington. In that match, Farmington led 2-0 and Siloam Springs rallied for a 3-2 win.
"Farmington typically plays a lot better at home than it does on the road," according to Farmington coach Marshall Ward. "We have a great student section and great fan support at home, and we do on the road too. We definitely have better stats at home. That's been a focus this year is changing that trend.
"I feel like we played well on the road tonight. Unfortunately that didn't get us a win, but I did feel like we played better."
Sharp led the Lady Panthers offensively with 12 kills to go with seven digs and two aces. Price had 10 kills, 15 assists, nine digs and three aces. Lampton had five kills and seven of the Lady Panthers' 14 aces, along with three digs and one block assist. Bowman contributed six kills and five digs, and Meg Gray had 18 assists and three digs.
Andrea Lowry led the Lady Panthers defensively with 32 digs and once ace, while Kelsey Lewis had 14 digs. Cooper had two kills, seven digs and two block assists, while Hadlee Hollenback had four digs and one kill, Britain Castagna three digs and Kirsten Loftis two digs.
Claudia Oxford led Farmington (5-7, 1-6) with seven kills, while Kaylynn Bates had 13 digs and Carley Antwine five aces.
Siloam Springs 3, Huntsville 0
HUNTSVILLE -- The Lady Panthers overcame 21 service errors to sweep Huntsville 25-22, 25-17, 25-21 in a nonconference volleyball match on Tuesday at Charles Berry Gymnasium.
Chloe Price led Siloam Springs (6-9) with 10 kills, including three setter dumps, to go with 13 assists, eight digs and two aces.
Shaylon Sharp had nine kills, three aces and 13 digs, while Ellie Lampton had six kills, two aces and one block assist.
Madison Cooper contributed five kills, three aces, and one block assist, while Allie Bowman had two kills
Meg Gray led with 18 assists to go with four aces, while Andrea Lowry led with 24 digs along with two aces. Kelsey Lewis had 21 digs. Overall, the Lady Panthers had 15 service aces.
The Lady Panthers are scheduled to host a return match with Huntsville at 6 p.m. on Monday at Panther Activity Center.
Sports on 09/25/2016