JONESBORO -- Greenwood survived Paragould's first set rally Wednesday, and the Lady Bulldogs got better from there.
Greenwood won the next two sets to sweep the Lady Rams 26-24, 25-15, 25-17 in the quarterfinals of the Class 5A state volleyball tournament at Don Riggs Hurricane Gymnasium.
"Momentum is everything in this game, and that's kind of been our M.O. all year," Greenwood Coach Jennifer Golden said. "We fight and we fight and we fight, and we never lay down. Just to see that continue to go on through the season has been really good."
The Lady Bulldogs (29-5-1), the No. 1 seed from the 5A-West, advance to today's 3 p.m. semifinal against 5A-East No. 3 seed Nettleton, which swept Russellville in another quarterfinal match Wednesday.
Greenwood produced a balanced offensive attack against Paragould (23-6), the No. 2 seed from the 5A-East.
Zoie Benton led Greenwood with 16 kills and 12 digs. Abby Cagle had 10 kills, while Camryn Presley had 8 kills, 11 digs and 14 assists. Izzy Davis had 18 digs, while Anna Johnson contributed 23 assists.
"We've got a really strong front row with Abby, Zoie, Hannah [Watkins], Camryn, all of those kids getting that many kills," Golden said. "It's easy to spread the ball out and get the ball to the person we need to when we need to."
The two teams battled through the first set with Greenwood taking a 23-19 lead, but Paragould rallied behind sisters Zoey and Taylor Beasley for a 24-24 tie.
But Presley notched a kill for Greenwood on the next play, and Benton followed with another kill to take the 26-24 win.
Paragould was leading 10-8 in the second set when the wheels came off for the Lady Rams. Greenwood finished on a 17-5 run to take the second set 25-15.
Greenwood controlled most of the third set.
Zoey Beasley led Paragould with 13 kills, while Taylor Beasley had 7 kills and Callie McPherson contributed 15 assists.
Siloam Springs 3, Mountain Home 2
Siloam Springs watched a 2-0 lead slip away, but the Lady Panthers were able to collect themselves in the fifth set to take a 25-19, 25-15, 20-25, 20-25, 15-6 victory.
The Lady Panthers (20-11-1) advance to today's semifinal to play tournament host Jonesboro.
"I'm so proud of them," Coach Joellen Wright said. "I think we were running out of gas, but I didn't see any quit in them. We knew it was going to be tough."
The Lady Panthers went on an 8-0 run in the fifth set to take a 10-2 lead and the momentum.
Chloe Price had three aces in that stretch, and sophomore Makenna Thomas had a pair of kills.
Reigan Brown added a pair of tip kills in that stretch, and Thomas had a kill to make it 14-6 before the Lady Panthers finished off the win.
"That was big time of Reigan Brown and Chloe Price to get us off to a good start in the fifth set," Wright said, "and Makenna Thomas did a great job swinging and having poise. Those were some big swings for a sophomore in the state tournament."
Nettleton 3, Russellville 0
Gracie Miller had 11 kills and Haley Durham added 10 as Nettleton advanced to the semifinals with a sweep of Russellville 25-18, 26-24, 25-13.
Makenzie Thomas added 14 digs for the Lady Raiders (25-9), the No. 3 seed from the 5A-East.
Jonesboro 3, Greenbrier 0
Tournament host and East No. 1 seed Jonesboro advanced to the semifinals with a 25-15, 25-15, 25-14 win over Greenbrier.
Clara Parker led the Lady Hurricane (30-3) with 15 kills, while Mikayla Johnson had 11 kills, 3 blocks and was perfect on 21 serves. Bailey Tagupa had 28 assists, while Breauna Moore had six blocks.
Sports on 10/25/2018