The Siloam Springs volleyball team's bid for its first 5A-West Conference win came up just short Tuesday, Sept. 27, against Harrison.
The Lady Goblins went on runs of 6-0 and 5-0 in the fifth and deciding set to take a 3-2 (25-23, 22-25, 25-14, 22-25, 15-8) victory inside Panther Activity Center.
"It was a great effort," said Siloam Springs coach Joellen Wright. "Credit Harrison for making more positive point plays than we did."
Siloam Springs had gotten behind in the second and fourth sets but was able to rally back both times. But in the shortened fifth set, that proved to be a tall order.
The Lady Panthers led 3-2 in the fifth set when momentum began to change. Harrison got a big kill from 6-1 hitter Reese Ricketts, who's commited to play Division I volleyball at North Alabama, to tie things up 3-3.
"She's a hammer," said Harrison coach April Mattix.
The Lady Panthers' back row defense then had a miscommunication on the serve let a ball hit the floor for a Harrison ace.
Siloam Springs then had three straight hitting errors and found itself down 8-3 in what seemed like a blink of an eye.
Lillian Wilkie had a tip kill to bring Siloam Springs within 8-4, but Harrison reeled off the next five points to take a 13-4 lead.
The only point in that run that Harrison scored was a block from Abbi Hicks. The other four came on two hitting errors, a net violation and a ball the Lady Panthers were unable to corral.
Siloam Springs did score four of the next five points, but a tip kill from Ricketts and a kill from Sydney Sidani ended the match for Harrison.
"When you play a game to 15 and it's so short, you don't have time to catch back up, which is what we did in the other set," said Siloam Springs coach Joellen Wright. "You don't have as much room for error."
Harrison (6-4, 3-4) led the entire way in the first set, holding off a late Siloam Springs charge to win 25-23.
The Lady Goblins pulled ahead 13-8 in the second set, but Siloam Springs went on a 15-7 run to flip the set in their favor, thanks to kills from Jetta Broquard and Wilkie and a kill and ace from freshman Haley Thomas.
Harrison stormed out to a 13-4 lead in the third set and rolled to the double-digit win.
The Lady Goblins led 7-3 early in the fourth set, but Siloam Springs rallied thanks to two aces and three kills from Broquard. The Lady Panthers pulled ahead and kills from Faith Ellis and Thomas wrapped up the fourth set win.
Broquard led the Lady Panthers with 14 kills along with two aces. Wilkie had 13 kills and one block assist, while Anna Wleklinski had 11 kills, 12 digs and three aces.
Aveary Speed had seven kills and one block assist with Thomas contributing seven kills, 10 digs, two aces and 34 assists.
Ellis added four kills with Trinity Collette leading defensively with 21 digs, Natalie Ross six digs and Cressa Soucie 13 assists.
Mountain Home 3,
Siloam Springs 0
The Lady Bombers completed the season sweep of Siloam Springs (5-13, 0-8) with a 25-9, 25-8, 25-11 victory on Thursday, Sept. 29.
Mountain Home defeated Siloam Springs 3-2 in a match at Panther Activity Center on Sept. 6.
Up next
The Lady Panthers were scheduled to play at Alma on Tuesday, Oct. 4. Results were not available at presstime. Siloam Springs is back in action at home against Greenbrier on Thursday, Oct. 6.