Spike in intensity : Siloam volleyball downs Fayetteville in season-opener
Posted on Friday, August 29, 2008
ANDY SHUPE Northwest Arkansas Times Siloam Springs sophomore Lizzy Briones (23 ) drops the ball over the net in front of Fayetteville junior Haley Martin (3 ) and senior Cassie Clarke during the Lady Panthers ’ win Thursday at Fayetteville High.
Aggressive play at the net propelled Siloam Springs to a four-game win over Fayetteville in the Lady Bulldogs' volleyball season opener on Thursday at Bulldog Gym. The Lady Panthers were victorious, 25-23, 25-20, 22-25, 25-22.
With 13 kills, junior Hannah Allison led the Lady Panthers, who were just two days removed from a straightgame home loss to Bentonville.
"Hannah just stepped up and provided tremendous leadership," Siloam Springs coach Rose Cheek said. "We got stomped bad by Bentonville. After getting thumbed on our home court I completely changed the lineup. We had a gut check the other day and we had a four-hour practice on Wednesday. I know the kids are exhausted because they worked their tails off and it showed tonight."
After going down two games to none, Fayetteville found its offense in the third game as Ashleigh Price tallied five of her six kills on the night in a come-from-behind win.
"Ashleigh stepped up for us tonight and I'm proud of her offense," Fayetteville coach Jessica Phelan said. "She gave us a nice punch going opposite on the front line of Haley Martin. [Price ] had great play and we need that from her.
"It was good to see some of our your kids stepping up. This is a whole new team from last year and we're going to need some kids to step up offensively and fill those holes for us."
Siloam Springs'aggressive style almost got the better of the Lady Panthers early. The Lady Bulldogs took advantage of unforced errors in building an 18-12 lead in the first game. The Lady Panthers' kill shots started finding their mark eventually as they held on for the win in the first game.
Allison tallied six untouched scoring kills as the visitors came away with a five-point win in the second game.
With Fayetteville down in games 2- 1, the fourth game saw the Lady Panthers hold as much as a 9-point lead, 14-5. With a pair of service aces from Cassie Clarke, an unreturned serve and bookend kills from Martin, Fayetteville tied things 18-18.
Allison's kill shot gave the Lady Panthers (1-1 ) a 19-18 lead and initiated a 4-2 run to give Siloam Springs a bit of breathing room, 23-20. Lizzy Briones and Maci Lewis drove home kills to give the Lady Panthers their third consecutive opening win over the Lady Bulldogs (0-1 ) in the last three years.
Siloam Springs will travel to Rogers on Tuesday in its next action. The Lady Bulldogs will travel to Tyler, Texas to take part in a two-day tournament.
"We're pretty excited," Phelan said of her team's upcoming games. "We have two tournaments off the bat to try and solidify our lineup. We have some kids that do other sports in the summer and I hadn't seen them all out here until tonight."
On Sept. 6, Fayetteville travels to West Plains, Mo., for the Show-me Showdown. They next see home action against Har-Ber on Sept. 11.
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