Mena stuns Lady Cobras in semis
FOUNTAIN LAKE — A slow start on its home floor Tuesday sent Fountain Lake’s volleyball team to a four-game loss to Mena in the 4A-West district semifinals at Bass Gymnasium.
Mena (18-11) jumped ahead 4-0 and won the first game 22-18. Fountain Lake, behind the service of Molly Breshears, tied it with a 25-22 victory before Mena prevailed 25-21, 25-23.
“I thought we started out super slow, and that kind of got us in a hole,” said Fountain Lake head coach Tina Moore. “That got (Mena) fired up, and I think that was a big key. We missed six or seven serves in the first set, and that was huge. We maybe swung hard on the ball two or three times; all we did was tip it back. You can’t get a good rhythm if you don’t swing.”
Elizabeth Bairett served four straight winners in the fourth game before the game ended on a controversial call.
Fountain Lake (26-2) “hit a little better (in the second game) and even the third game,” Moore said. That fourth game, when it got tight, what’d we resort back to? Tipping it over and giving them the chance to play offense. We just put ourselves in the hole doing that… We started hitting the ball (in the second set), and they couldn’t do anything with it. They couldn’t get quality hits off it because they couldn’t pass the ball.”
Bairett (28 assists, 17 digs and 18 service points) and Olivia Cox (17 kills and 17 digs) both had double-doubles. Libero Erin Burke led the team defensively with 21 digs, and Emoree Martin served for 19 points while recording 12 kills and five digs.
Mena has a strong tradition but has struggled to find its identity this year, said coach Brad Lyle.
“We’ve had a real up and down year,” he said. “We’ve got a pretty strong tradition. I think they worried more about keeping up with everybody else instead of being themselves. A few weeks ago, I started to see it kind of turn. We play best when we’re having fun. We had fun last night; we had fun tonight. We’ve got enough talent that we can be tough to beat when we’re having a little fun.”
Courtney Milam led the Ladycats with 18 assists and six digs. Alicia Barrett had 26 digs, Makayla Lyle
12 kills and 13 digs and Grace Wagner eight kills, eight digs and four blocks.
“She started for me as a sophomore on the team that made the state-championship game,” Lyle said of Wagner. “She had a great sophomore year in the shadows. Last year, she was all-state for us. She’s a senior, unfortunately. How she goes is how we go.”
Fountain Lake faces Ashdown (22-8) in the thirdplace game at 5 p.m. today.
Maddison Herrera and Haley Carter tallied double-doubles as Booneville downed Ashdown 3-0 (2512, 25-23, 25-12) in the first semifinal Tuesday.
“I felt like we came out and did what we needed to do to take care of business,” said Booneville head coach Candy Goff. “You never know with high school girls what they’re going to do, but tonight they came out and brought their A game.”
Herrera led the Lady Bearcats with 28 assists and
11 digs, Carter had 13 kills and 13 digs, Aleeah Blansett had 14 digs and six kills and libero Paisley Templeman posted 19 digs.
Ashdown libero Cabre McCullough led the Lady Panthers with 31 digs. Zakiyah Rhone had 12 assists and eight digs, Adaysia Thompson 17 kills and Kenya Wilson six digs and nine kills.
“We started off a little bit slow,” said Ashdown head coach Anna Tillery. “Booneville did a very good job. We just made some silly errors, and that’s what hurt us there.”