Mavs movin’ on

Southside, Bentonville advance to 6A volleyball final

CABOT — Fort Smith Southside saw a late lead slip away in the opening set but turned the tables on Springdale Har-Ber later in the match and advanced to Saturday’s Class 6A state volleyball finals.

The Mavericks scored the final seven points of the third set with junior Avery Fitzgerald delivering backto-back kills to finish off the 26-24 win in the third set, then carried that momentum to the 3-1 (23-25, 25-21, 26-24, 25-19) state semifinal win on Thursday afternoon at Panther Arena.

Southside (31-5) will take an 18-match winning streak into Saturday’s championship match against Bentonville High (25-9). First serve is slated for 1 p.m. at Bank OZK Arena in Hot Springs.

Southside coach Natalie Throneberry couldn’t even explain how her Mavericks gutted out the key third-set victory after Har-Ber had put together an 11-2 run to take a 24-19 lead and was on the verge of a 2-1 lead in the match.

That also came after the Lady Wildcats (26-8) trailed 22-28 in the opening set but finished on a 7-1 run to earn the 25-23 win.

“I’m still trying to figure it out,” said Throneberry, who was the Mavericks’ assistant coach a year ago when they lost in the finals. “And we had our middle hitter serving and playing middle back defense. We’ve done a lot of stuff differently trying to work on mindset after last year. The last thing we talked about Tuesday was predator versus prey.

“That first set we played like we were prey. We played like we were on our heels. Second set, third set especially

Arkansas Democrat-Gazette/THOMAS METTHE Fort Smith Southside’s Avery Fitzgerald (center) hits the ball over Springdale Har-Ber’s Kat Cooper (15) and Natalie Williams (2) on Thursday during the Class 6A state volleyball tournament semifinal in Cabot.