Fountain Lake in familiar territory

FOUNTAIN LAKE 3, SOUTHSIDE BATESVILLE 0

BATESVILLE — The Fountain Lake Lady Cobras have again advanced to the semifinals, looking to break through and make their first state championship appearance.

The Lady Cobras advanced to today’s semifinal round with a 25-12, 25-16, 2522 sweep of host Southside Batesville in the quarterfinals Wednesday at the Class 4A state volleyball tournament at Becknell Gym on the campus of Lyon College.

Fountain Lake will take on Baptist Prep in today’s first semifinal.

“We’ve been to the semifinals a lot, but we could just not get over that hump,” said Fountain Lake Coach Tina Moore, who has been at the school for 21 years. “The girls certainly deserve it. They’ve worked hard every day and every match. We are very team-oriented. We don’t have that one standout or two that can take over. The key for us is to get the ball to the one that is hot at the moment.”

Having most of the crowd behind them, the Lady Southerners got off to a quick start in the first game, going up 4-2. The two clubs went back and forth until the score was 9-9, but the Lady Cobras scored four in a row and eight of the next 10 for a 17-11 advantage. Southside could get no closer than four the rest of the way.

It was Fountain Lake that got the quick start in the second game, jumping to a 5-1 lead while never trailing. Southside got back to within 5-4, but then the Lady Cobras scored 10 of the next 14 points to open up a 15-8 lead. They eventually led 23-12 before the Lady Southerners made a little run at the end, but Fountain Lake won on a service error.

Trying to stave off elimination, the Lady Southerners put forth their best game of the night in the third set, taking leads of 10-7, 14-11 and 18-16. But the Lady Cobras went on a 6-0 run to go up 22-18, and they finished off the match with a 9-2 run.

Olivia Cox led Fountain Lake with 15 kills. Mattie Ballard led Southside with 10.