CABOT - Getting new life on a point they had apparently lost, Springdale Har-Ber’s Lady Wildcats rallied for a five-game victory over North Little Rock in Tuesday’s opening round of the Class 7A volleyball state tournament.
Junior Kimberly Huff made 20 kills as the Lady Wildcats earned a 22-25, 25-19, 19-25, 25-21, 15-11 victory over the Lady Charging Wildcats to advance to today’s quarterfinal match against 7A-West champion Bentonville.
“It was crazy; first-game jitters early maybe,” Har-Ber Coach Sandy Jones said. “It’s what we’ve been working on all year to finish a game. … We came together, and I’m proud of them.”
North Little Rock (10-9) held an 8-6 lead in the fifth game and seemed poised to increase that lead when Har-Ber failed to cleanly handle a return. But when a Har-Ber player ran into a line judge in an attempt to chase down the ball, game officials ruled the point had to be replayed.
Har-Ber won the ensuing point and eventually claimed the victory.
“You don’t want to blame a loss on an official’s call, but that did change the momentum,” North Little Rock Coach Leslie Joshua said. “All you can do is keep encouraging the girls to keep playing. … I thought we played well, but we didn’t get the result we wanted.”
Seniors Tiana Gilliam and Mallory Dutton had 11 kills each for North Little Rock while sophomores Seven Powers Taliyanna Bryant came up with 10 each.
MOUNT ST. MARY 3, FAYETTEVILLE 2
The defending state champion Lady Bulldogs (12-19) jumped out to big leads in the first three games only to drop a five-game decision to the Belles (15-11).
Senior Catie Crawford made 28 kills, including seven in the fifth game, as Mount St. Mary earned an 18-25, 26-24, 22-25, 25-20, 15-11 victory.
Senior Melissa Sampson added 18 kills and sophomore Madison Uhlig had 10 for the Belles. Senior Cassidy Ginger led the Lady Bulldogs with 23 kills, while junior Olivia Thomas added nine and senior Addison Keller served four aces.
Fayetteville scored 18 of the first 19 points in the first game, led 8-1 in Game 2 and 6-0 in the third game.
FORT SMITH NORTHSIDE 3, SPRINGDALE 0
Junior middle blocker Tiarra McDonald made eight of her team-high 14 kills in the third game as the Lady Bears (22-8) defeated the Lady Bulldogs (11-17) 25-16, 25-20, 27-25.
Northside trailed by as many as five points in the third game and also survived one game-point in completing the sweep. The Lady Bears managed to overcome 15 kills from Springdale sophomore Desiree Mack.
Senior Leilani Ocasio led Northside with five aces. She also closed out the match by serving for the third game’s final three points. Senior Nicole Knight added 12 kills and senior Merit Jennings made nine kills.
Senior Mariah King added nine kills for Springdale.
CABOT 3, BRYANT 1
Senior middle blocker Taylor Bitely made 17 kills as the host Lady Panthers eliminated the Lady Hornets with a 25-19, 18-25, 25-18, 25-15 victory.
After Bryant (12-18) had tied the match at one game each, Cabot (15-11) scored the first six points of the third game to ignite its match-winning rally.
Senior Lakin Best came up with seven of her 15 kills in the third game. Senior Bailee Uhiren served four aces and senior Kaitlyn Pittman served three.
Sophomore Kejai Kelley led the Lady Hornets with eight kills, and sophomore Britney Schlmann came up with seven kills. Schlmann and junior Abby Staton each served three aces.
Sports, Pages 22 on 10/30/2013