Siloam Springs won the opening set against Alma on Thursday, Sept. 8, never trailing in a 25-22 victory.
The rest of the way, however, the Lady Panthers played lethargic and didn't look like the same team that competed in the first set, as Alma went on to win the next three sets for a 3-1 5A-West Conference victory (22-25, 25-14, 25-16, 25-17) inside Panther Activity Center.
"It wasn't our best effort, and credit to Alma for putting the ball down in places that we weren't," said head coach Joellen Wright, who was puzzled by her team's flat performance after playing well in a 3-2 loss to Mountain Home just two days earlier.
"We played five sets on Tuesday (Sept. 6 against Mountain Home)," Wright said. "We didn't go that long (in practice Wednesday). We didn't jump much. We fed them, I thought, a good pregame meal. I told them in the locker room, I don't know if you're not getting enough calories or if you're not getting enough sleep, but you just looked 'blah' and drained."
Alma (2-5, 1-1), meanwhile, looked anything but drained as the Lady Airedales went to work on the Lady Panthers (3-5, 0-2).
Alma senior Rachel James led the way with a triple-double performance of 11 kills, 11 assists and 12 digs, while senior Jenna Williams had 10 kills and 11 digs. Mia Nichols added nine kills for Alma, including the match-ending kill in the fourth set. Junior Julia Nutt had 17 digs, while sophomore Mallory Burchfield had 14 digs.
"This -- how we played tonight, is really what we've been waiting to see demonstrated on the court," said Alma coach Kim Weaver. "Our senior libero (Laila Boyd) tore her ACL early in the season, and our serve-receive and defense has been a struggling to fill that void. We kind of put some pieces together tonight that worked."
Weaver was pleased with the Lady Airedales' offensive attack.
"We worked a lot on that on being more balanced," Weaver said. "I think we'll find more success on getting one-on-one options against larger blocks that we'll see in our conference. Super proud of our seniors. They want the opportunity to compete for a chance to go to state, and this is one step closer for us."
Jetta Broquard led Siloam Springs (3-5, 0-2) with 10 kills while Lillian Wilkie had nine kills, Haley Thomas 23 assists, Cressa Soucie 10 assists and Trinity Collette 16 digs.
Mountain Home 3, Siloam Springs 2
The Lady Panthers pushed the Lady Bombers to a fifth game, but in the fifth set Mountain Home got out to an early 9-4 lead and held on for the victory (19-25, 25-16, 25-11, 19-25, 15-12).
Siloam Springs won the first set 25-19, but lost the next two 25-16, 25-11 as the Lady Bombers took a 2-1 lead in the match.
Siloam Springs, powered by five aces, came back and won the fourth set 25-19, with contributions all over the court. Anna Wleklinski had three aces and a kill, while Haley Thomas had two aces and a kill and Gracie Greer had two kills.
Mountain Home responded in the fifth set, going up 9-4 and eventually 14-9.
Wleklinski reeled off three straight kills as the Lady Panthers pulled within 14-12, but a kill from Carson Schmitz ended the match for the Lady Bombers.
Schmitz led Mountain Home with 25 kills, Lindsay Jensen had 10 kills and 28 assists and Anna McCann six blocks.
Lillian Wilkie led Siloam Springs with 11 kills, two block assists and two aces, while Wleklinski had nine kills, 14 digs and three aces.
Jetta Broquard had seven kills and two block assists with Greer contributing three kills and Faith Ellis and Esther Norwood each with two kills and two block assists.
Thomas had 22 assists and 11 digs, while Cressa Soucie had seven assists, Trinity Collette 21 digs and three aces, and Chaney Stanaland eight digs.
Up next
The Lady Panthers were back in action on Tuesday, Sept. 13, at Greenbrier. Results were not available at presstime.
Siloam Springs returns to the court on Thursday, Sept. 15, at home against Greenwood.