FAYETTEVILLE — Shelby Daniel never became overconfident, but she did get a tad hyper.
Who could blame the Valley View volleyball standout?
Daniel and her East teammates defeated the West 3-2 on Tuesday night in the Arkansas High School Coaches Association All-Star volleyball game at Barnhill Arena.
The East dominated early, winning the first two games 25-15 and 25-20. When the East won the first game against a listless West, Daniel cautioned her teammates against overconfidence.
It was good advice as the West rallied to tie the match with 25-17 and 25-21 victories.
The deciding fifth game went to extra points as the teams traded 15-15 and 16-16 ties. Finally, the East closed out the match when Wynne’s Claire Clark served an ace to clinch the 18-16 victory.
“That’s the best kind of volleyball, where it gets the girls’ blood going,” said Daniel, who was named the Most Valuable Player. “You can’t control what you’re doing.
“I get so excited, I’m jumping up and down. When it gets to the end, I’m pretty wild out there.”
To prevail, the East had to survive a tenacious West team and the power of Springdale Har-Ber hitter Summer Morgan, an Arkansas signee who was named the West’s Most Outstanding Player after collecting 12 kills. Two of the kills came late in the fifth game and were aimed directly at Daniel, who bent over backward to avoid the ball on one kill in hopes it went out of bounds.
“I did a little Matrix move there,” said Daniel, who finished with 10 kills and 11 digs.
East Coach Margie McGee of Valley View said the see-saw action of the fifth game was no surprise considering how talented both teams were.
“They were gutting it out every single point,” McGee said. “That’s what makes it fun.”
The West was led by Morgan and Sheridan’s Hannah Hicks, who had a match-high 15 digs. Piggott’s Breanna Wright of the East had 11 digs, and Paragould’s Leigha Norden had 10.
West Coach Brandy Chumley of Benton said her team looked nervous the first game, and that carried over into the second game. The East led by as many as 13 points the first game and six the second game, but the West led by 10 points in the third and fourth games.
“We were just going through the motions,” Chumley said. “It was fun. We just made too many errors. That’s what it came down to. We had our chances.”
Sports, Pages 25 on 06/20/2012