Lady Blackhawks make adjustments
Farmington got a monkey off its back in beating Pea Ridge 3-1 Tuesday, Sept. 10.
The Lady Cardinals hadn’t beaten Pea Ridge in a volleyball match since Oct. 3, 2016. Last season, when Farmington rejoined the 4A-1 Conference, the Lady Blackhawks won all three matches including a sweep in the district tournament which Pea Ridge hosted.
Farmington won the first-round this year by scores of 25-20, 25-21, 22-25, and 25-21. Each game featured a battle for supremacy between two very-closely matched opponents.
“I knew that these two teams, every time that we meet the last couple of years in volleyball, we go at it,” said Farmington coach Mike Howard. “These girls know each other. They play club together a lot. They’ve played growing up so I knew it was going to be back-and-forth and I knew 3-1 looks good in the books, but we knew coming in no matter 3-0, 3-1 us or the other way, however it was going to be, the sets
weren’t going to be far off.”
Howard expected the competition to be good and the first set was all of that. Farmington led 18-14 but had to withstand a Pea
Ridge rally. Ashlynn Humphrey’s ace coupled with Farmington service and hitting errors drew the Lady Blackhawks within, 19-18.
Madison Cox pounded a kill to get the next point for Farmington and Kally Stout drove home a pair of kills to get the Lady Cardinals separation on the scoreboard at 23-18. Pea Ridge tried to stay alive on kills by Josey Goldberg and KynLey Burton, but Stout finished the set with a kill.
Junior middle blocker Addison Fenton made her presence known at times overpowering the Lady Blackhawks along the front line. Her block-kill brought Farmington to game-point with a 24-20 lead in the second set. Stout again closed out the set by drilling a killing hit.
Pea Ridge coach Jessica Woods noted the quality of Farmington’s play at the net, yet hinted at adjustments she will make in the future.
“They’ve got that really good middle (Fenton) and we were having a really hard time getting around her block today, and they had a couple of girls who were using our young ones to bounce the ball off their arms so we can’t wait to see them again at home,” Woods said.
Pea Ridge avoided a sweep by winning game three, 25-22. Fenton’s kill narrowed the Lady Blackhawk lead to 19-18 and Farmington was also within, 23-22, on Stout’s kill.
Goldberg scored consecutive kills from the backrow to put the game away with Pea Ridge winning 2522. Howard said the tactic wasn’t a surprise although the timing favored Pea Ridge.
“We kind of expected that. We practiced it yesterday. We knew that when No. 7 Josey (Goldberg) was in back-row, they were going to try and use her as an offensive weapon. They didn’t do it as much the first two sets,” Howard said. “Hey, listen, it hasn’t worked so far. They’re down 2-0, they’re going to make adjustments. We’re going to make adjustments, too.”
After the third set loss, Howard told the team to anticipate a back-row attack, telling the Lady Cardinals before the fourth set, “It worked a couple times and then I reminded the team that’s what they were going to do and then we made adjustments and it worked out in the end.”
“This group plays with a lot of heart. They’re figuring out how to work together and that’s one thing that they’re not ever going to give up and so we’ve been coaching and really practicing intensity throughout the match and so that’s just something that we can keep improving on,” Woods said.
“You’ve got Shiloh and Harrison and Farmington always at the top and you never know what Berryville’s going to come through with,” Woods said.
Asked how she likes her girls’ chances, Woods said, “I’ve got some girls who can lead us to where we need to go.”
The Lady Blackhawks were slated to play in Diamond, Mo., Monday, Sept. 16, and at Shiloh Christian on Tuesday, Sept. 17.