Siloam Springs' volleyball team picked up an important 5A-West Conference victory on Thursday evening.
The Lady Panthers snapped a four-match conference skid with a 3-2 victory over Mountain Home inside Panther Activity Center.
Siloam Springs won the first two highly competitive sets, 27-25, 26-24, which both went past the 25-point mark. Mountain Home won the third set 25-20 to get back in the match, but Siloam Springs looked to be in control of the fourth set leading 22-17.
The Lady Bombers rallied for a 26-24 victory to send the match to the fifth set, and Mountain Home took a 4-1 lead into the fifth set, forcing a Siloam Springs timeout.
The Lady Panthers came out of the timeout and scored five of the next six points, including two kills from Jetta Broquard and a combo block with her sister Mesa Broquard., which tied the match 6-6.
Another kill from Jetta Broquard and a tip kill from Mesa Broquard gave Siloam Springs a 9-8 lead, but the Lady Panthers served the next ball out of bounds to tie the match 9-9.
The Lady Panthers shook off that mistake and scored the next six points to take the fifth match 15-9. Both of the Broquard sisters had a kill in that run, and Mesa Broquard had a block.
"I think we showed a lot of heart, and a lot of fight and a lot of discipline and confidence in ourselves to be able to pull out all those sets," said first-year Siloam Springs coach Carrie Thammarath. "All the sets we won (except the last one) were two points. And so we pulled them out with the heart, the trust in each other, the confidence that we've got it, the belief that regardless of what happened the point before, regardless of what happened the point after, we were going to focus and dial in for the next point."
The victory pulled Siloam Springs (9-7, 3-5) into a tie for fifth place in the 5A-West Conference with Mountain Home (6-10, 3-5), though the Lady Bombers hold a tiebreaker due to a sweep of the Lady Panthers in Mountain Home on Sept. 5. The top four teams in the conference qualify for the Class 5A playoffs.
"Mentally we know we're good enough to be out there and we're good enough to hang with them," said Jetta Broquard. "Coach is pushing in us, we're good enough to be out there and we work so hard to come back and we can. We're in the mix for state. It's good.
"Mentality has changed on this team so much. we knew coming in, our work in the offfseason and preseason was the hardest we've ever worked before games started happening. We got it in and we've just worked really hard."
The Lady Panthers were scheduled to host Alma on Tuesday night. Results were not available at presstime.
With six games remaining, including Tuesday's game, the win last week was huge for the Lady Panthers.
"That's what we've been talking about all season long. If you watch our trajectory, there's only been one time where I think we took one small step back, but every other part of our season has been steps forward in the right direction. and we talked about it all week at practice this week," Thammarath said. "If we take one more step in the right direction, it's going to work out for us, and they believed it. Yes it was close, but the whole time they believed we're taking the step in the right direction and it's going to work out. So encouraging them to continue doing that and now we've got the next team and we're going to take one more step in the right direction and try to make it work with the next team as well."
Aveary Speed had four kills in the opening set against Mountain Home, including the game-winner off the right side for the 27-25 win.
Siloam Springs had a big lead, 22-17, in the second set, only to have Mountain Home rally and tie the set at 23.
Lillian Wilkie had a kill, but Carson Schmitz answered for Mountain Home to tie it at 24.
Jetta Broquard answered with a kill and Trinity Collette served an ace for the game winner in set two.
"I think when it comes down to the two-point sets, it's anybody's game at any point," Thammarath said. "It's going to come down to who pushes the hardest at the end and who doesn't let the ball hit the floor. And who's being smart with their swings, but aggressive."
Mountain Home opened up a 5-0 lead in the third set and led the whole way, but Siloam Springs controlled most of the fourth set before letting the lead slip away.
"That was the positive I think of this whole thing was not laying down after the first two sets," said Mountain Home coach Jill Daves. "I was a little disappointed in some of our upperclassmen's performance, because that was probably the worst game I've seen them play all year to be honest. But I am very proud of some of our underclassmen. I thought they were great. They didn't give up. We're leaving here with battle wounds on our body. Definitely proud of them."
Jetta Broquard had a season-high 24 kills, 23 digs and one block assist.
"I could just tell with the way that she was playing, when she made a mistake or when the other team scored a good point, she responded immediately with the fire that we love from her," Thammarath said of Jetta Broquard. "The leadership of 'hey guys lock in, we're getting the next one.' She's been a very vocal leader, a very passionate leader, and she's done a really good job, really this whole season, and tonight was the perfect example of how important it is for our team. She's done a great job of rallying her team and getting them to believe in themselves and believing and demonstrating her belief in herself even when she makes a mistake. She's been a key player as far as confidence and working with her team."
Wilkie added 14 kills, while Speed had 12 kills and one solo block, while Mesa Broquard had eight kills and one block assist.
Story Castagna had five kills.
Haley Thomas led with 47 assists, while Collette had 31 digs, two assists and one ace. Natalie Ross served two aces.
Cenzi Johnson had 13 digs, while Chaney Stanaland had eight digs and two aces.
Harrison 3, Siloam Springs 1
Siloam Springs' Jetta Broquard finished with 12 kills and nine digs as the Lady Panthers fell 3-1 (25-16, 15-25, 25-21, 25-14) fell to Harrison on Tuesday, Sept. 26.
Lillian Wilkie had seven kills, while Aveary Speed had six kills and Story Castagna four kills.
Wilkie had two assisted blocks with Haley Thomas scoring one solo block.
Thomas dished out 20 assists to go with three aces and a block for Siloam Springs.
Jetta Broquard and Chaney Stanaland each had two aces, while Cenzi Johnson had one ace.
Trinity Collette finished with 18 digs for the Lady Panthers, with Jetta Broquard and Thomas each with nine and Chaney Stanaland six digs.
Up next
The Lady Panthers travel to Greenbrier on Thursday for a 5A-West Conference match. Siloam Springs swept Greenbrier 3-0 on Sept. 12 and also Greenbrier 2-1 in the Bentonville Tournament.
Krystal Elmore/Special to Herald-Leader Siloam Springs senior Jetta Broquard goes up for a hit against Mountain Home on Thursday, Sept. 28, inside Panther Activity Center.