HARRISON - Paris survived a five-game battle with Piggott on Wednesday to advance the semifinals of the Class 3A volleyball state tournament for the second consecutive year.
The Lady Eagles defeated the Lady Mohawks 25-20, 19-25, 25-23, 18-25, 15-8 at the Brandon Burlsworth Youth Center and will take on Fountain Lake today. Fountain Lake defeated Harrisburg 25-21, 25-12, 25-11 on Wednesday.
“I told the girls coming into this match that it is going to go five games … a good team was going to win and a good team was going to lose,” Paris Coach Wes Davis said. “That’s exactly what happened. The ball bounces differently a couple of times, we would’ve been the ones going home.”
Paris finished with 63 kills and three blocks. Senior Jakyra Austin had 21 kills, junior Daisy Mitchell had 16 and freshman Lycia Peevy had 13.
“This is only the second year of volleyball for Jakyra,” Davis said. “She is a great kid and has picked it up pretty fast. Mitchell led us with 23 kills [Tuesday]. Lycia had a pretty good night as well. She was a little shaky early, but the other girls got behind her and got her going. She turned it on at the end when we needed it the most.”
After dropping the fourth set by seven points, Paris opened the deciding fifth set with a 7-1 run, getting two kills each from Austin and Peevy and one from Mitchell.
Two of Piggott’s first three points were on kills by Kacey Crossfield, but Paris built a 10-3 lead after a kill by Ashlin Forbis and an ace from Delaney Wilks.
Piggott, champion of the 3A-Northeast Conference, coaxed three consecutive errors out of the Lady Eagles and a kill by Jessica Mallard closed the gap to 11-8, but Paris regained the momentum with a kill by Mitchell. Shendri Martines served back-to back aces, and a left-handed dink by Austin - her third of the match - was the game and match winner.
Neither team led by more than three points in the first game until Paris went on an 8-3 run for a 21-16 lead and scored the game’s final three points, two on kills by Mitchell.
The Lady Eagles scored the first four points of the second game before Piggott roared back to take a 10-8 lead and eventually extended that to 18-13 and 23-17 before taking a 25-19 victory.
Paris scored the first three points of the third set and led by four several times, the last at 14-10. The Lady Mohawks finally caught up at 16-16 and took a 19-18 lead on a block by Crossfield. But Paris regained the lead, 23-21, before the score was tied one last time at 23-23.
Wilks knocked down a long kill that just barely clipped the line in the left corner for a 24-23 lead, and Peevy added the game-winner for Paris.
Piggott scored the first three points of the fourth set and trailed only once, 11-10, before taking control with a 9-2 run and a 19-13 lead. The Lady Eagles were no closer than four points the rest of the game.
Piggott finished the match with 41 kills and four blocks. McKenzie Hopkins led the way with 17 kills and two blocks, while Crossfield had 10 kills and a block.
Sports, Pages 23 on 10/31/2013