The Siloam Springs volleyball team finished out its home schedule in style Tuesday night.
The Lady Panthers completed the season sweep of Van Buren with a 25-14, 25-18, 25-17 victory in 5A-West Conference play at Panther Activity Center -- the final home match of the season.
"It was a really great night," said head coach Joellen Wright. "It's a good feeling to know that we got a whole season in and that we were able to make some memories and they were so positive about every opportunity they had."
Siloam Springs also beat Van Buren 3-2 (25-27, 25-23, 25-27, 25-22, 15-13) at Clair Bates Arena on Sept. 24 for its first victory of the season to snap a 10-game losing streak.
On Tuesday, there was no such drama as the Lady Panthers used a 6-0 run in the first set to break open an 11-9 score and take a commanding 17-9 lead.
Senior Clara Butler, junior Emma Norberg and senior Makenna Thomas all had kills in the run, while sophomore Cailee Johnson had an ace. Sophomore Faith Ellis and senior Jaedyn Soucie added kills, while Thomas had an ace and a kill from senior Sophia Lange gave the Lady Panthers a 25-14 win.
Siloam Springs rolled out to a 19-14 lead in the second set behind seven kills from Butler and three from Norberg. Van Buren scored three straight points on Lady Panther errors to pull within 19-17, but a kill from Ellis got the ball back for Siloam Springs.
Ellis and Thomas teamed up for a block for a 22-17 lead, and another kill from Ellis, her fourth of the set, set up set point. Van Buren hit the ball out of bounds as the Lady Panthers won 25-18.
"We were purposely trying to run the offense and keep the fast pace going," Wright said. "Even though (the Lady Pointers) weren't having a good night, we wanted to make the crowd have some fun and show them some things that we've learned how to do."
Siloam Springs was in control all the way in the third set, leading 7-3 and later 17-6, thanks to three kills from Norberg, two from Ellis and Butler and one each from Thomas and Lange.
Two kills from Ellis made it 24-16 and a kill out of the back row from senior Maggie Torres gave the Lady Panthers the sweep with the 25-17 victory.
"They made it look easy tonight," Wright said. "That's probably one of their best games."
Butler led Siloam Springs with 14 kills and a block assist, while Faith Ellis had eight kills and two block assists and Emma Norberg seven kills and two block assists. Makenna Thomas dished out 29 assists with 12 digs, three kills and two block assists.
Hanna Fullerton led defensively with 21 digs, while Micah Curry and Cailee Johnson each had eight digs and Maggie Torres seven digs.
Lange had two kills and a block assist while Soucie had two kills.
In a covid-19 plagued season that saw several teams not able to play all their home games, Wright was happy the Lady Panthers got to play all nine home games as well as the road games without any interruptions.
The flip side is because the 5A-West Conference did not have any cancellations due to covid, the conference will not have a conference tournament to determine postseason eligibility. The 5A-West was one of the few leagues across the state to get all its games in.
Because of Russellville's win against Vilonia on Tuesday, the Lady Panthers were eliminated from the playoff race.
Vilonia 3, Siloam Springs 0
The Lady Panthers were swept at Vilonia 3-0 in their season finale at Vilonia.
Scores and statistics were not available at presstime.
Siloam Springs ends the season with a 5-15 record overall and 5-9 mark in 5A-West Conference play.
