Lady Panthers bounce back, top Vilonia
■ The Eagles won the first set, but SSHS rallied for a 3-1 win.
Siloam Springs rebounded from a rough start Thursday night to come back and beat Vilonia in a 5A-West Conference volleyball match.
The Lady Panthers dropped the first set 27-25 before coming back and taking the next three with little trouble 25-13, 25-18, 25-11 at Panther Activity Center.
Head coach Joellen Wright hinted that there might have been a little carryover of last Tuesday’s disappointing 3-0 loss at Greenwood during the first game in which Vilonia scored more than half of its points on Siloam Springs mistakes.
“After the first game I was upset with how their lack of focus,” Wright said. “So I encouraged them to be the best they can be and pick it up and get it done. Let’s go. This is not who you are. I was proud of them because they responded.”
With the second set tied 12-12, Siloam Springs got hot and finished on a 13-1 to take the second set 25-13.
Sophomore Makenna Thomas and senior Reigan Brown had kills to start the run, and Chloe Price and Ellie Lampton had six kills combined on the back end as the Lady Panthers tied the match 1-1.
Siloam Springs (8-4, 3-1) jumped out to an 8-4 lead in game three, but Vilonia tightened things up and pulled within 1413 midway through.
The Lady Eagles had a service error on the next play, however, and Thomas and Brown followed up with back to back kills with Lampton scoring an ace for an 18-3 lead.
Maddy Lasater had an ace to give Siloam Springs a 22-14 advantage and a Price kill set up game point for Siloam Springs. Senior Jaycie Curry’s kill ended the third set at 25-18 and gave the Lady Panthers a 2-1 lead.
Siloam Springs was off and running in game four as Price and Lampton had early kills and Price then served three straight aces for an 8-1 lead.
Kills from Lampton, Katie Kendrick, Brown and Thomas made it 13-5. Price and Jael Harried added two more kills for a 15-7 lead.
Kendrick and Lampton had one more kill each sandwiched around a Kelsey Lewis ace, and Rachel Conrad had three big blocks down the stretch as the Lady Panthers set up match point.
A kill from Abby Kelly on the outside gave the Lady Panthers the match victory.
Price scored a triple double for Siloam Springs with 17 kills, 17 assists, 11 digs and five aces, while Lampton had 16 kills and 13 digs.