Siloam Springs responds to coach

CLASS 6A SILOAM SPRINGS 3, SEARCY 0

PEARCY — Siloam Springs Coach Rose Cheek-Willis didn’t like what she saw early in Tuesday’s opening round match against Searcy in the Class 6A state volleyball tournament and called timeout in game one after one of her players was penalized for a net violation.

Siloam Springs led 11-7 at that point, but Cheek-Willis had seen enough.

“I was embarrassed with our play,” she said, citing multiple errors attributed to a lack of focus.

The Lady Panthers eventually worked out the kinks and rolled to a 25-13, 25-7, 25-9 sweep of Searcy at Wolf Arena.

Siloam Springs (18-17) advances to today’s quarterfinals at 4 p.m. against Jonesboro (24-7).

After Cheek-Willis’ timeout, Searcy’s Bree Bartlett served an ace to pull Searcy within 11-8, but Siloam Springs went on a 7-2 run to go up 1810, and Shaylon Sharp and Katie Kendrick each served aces down the stretch for a 25-13 victory.

Searcy (1-16) led 5-4 after a kill from Darbi Owen in game two, but Siloam Springs got the ball back on an Ellie Lampton kill to tie the match. Elise Scarbrough then had two consecutive kills and Sharp served consecutive aces to go up 12-5. A total of 17 aces in the game helped Siloam Springs take it 25-7.

Sharp led the Siloam Springs with 8 kills, 8 digs and 12 aces. Lampton had 7 kills and 2 aces, while Chloe Price had 4 kills and 10 assists. Meg Gray had 14 assists.