LH denies Hot Spring in 3 sets, FL in 5
PEARCY — Lake Hamilton rolled to consecutive victories Tuesday as the Lady Wolves hosted Hot Springs and Fountain Lake for a tri-match series at Wolf Arena.
The Lady Wolves (17-4, 8-3 5A-South) began the tri-match by sweeping Hot Springs (7-8, 5-6) in straight sets, 25-17, 25-19, 25-10.
“The Hot Springs team looks like they improve every year,” said Lake Hamilton head coach Karen Smith. “They are always getting better and better. I think they played well tonight.”
Lake Hamilton won the first
two sets of the second match with Fountain Lake (16-6-1, 4-1 3A-South), but the Lady Cobras forced a fifth set before falling, 25-15, 25-18, 16-25, 23-25, 15-9.
“I thought we started out a little slow, but we finally kicked it into gear,” said Fountain Lake head coach Tina Moore.
Fountain Lake was able to establish its blocking game in the third set and eked out the win in the fourth.
“It was a really exciting match,” said Moore. “It’s always good to come across town and have a good rivalry match with them; it’s fun. They always seem to bring the best out in us, so I thought it was a good match with good energy on our part.”
Fountain Lake freshman Sophie Skinner facilitated her front line by leading the Lady Cobras with 47 assists and nine service points.
“(Presley) Hamric, our right side, had a small injury,” added Moore. “Hopefully, it’s just a minor injury. We think it’s just a sprain, but we’ll find out for sure tomorrow. I thought our girls that came in and stepped in after she went down did an awesome job forcing the game all the way and going the distance. I’m very proud of them.”
Emoree Martin led the Lady Cobras’ service game with 14 service points and tallied 19 assists with 17 kills.
“The injury changed up our rotation up a little bit, but I think that may have just given our girls something hard to play for,” noted Moore. “They started digging in … they started playing hard and playing aggressive, they kept swinging.”
Fountain Lake senior outside hitter Cherokee Fields paced her team with 10 kills, while Landry Cate had five blocks.
“I think their (Fountain Lake) blocking got in our head a little bit,” noted Smith. “After we got past that, I thought we were fine.”
“I saw a lot of really good things, but I also saw a lot of things that we still need to work on. Coach Moore is a great coach, that’s why I always pick Fountain Lake to play. She will show me in a game, the things I definitely need to work on, and that’s what she did tonight.”
Lake Hamilton senior Celestie Nasilai and junior Savannah Brown had five solo blocks apiece. Nasilai led the Lady Wolves with 11 kills, while Brown tallied seven.
Lake Hamilton will meet El Dorado (3-10, 2-8) on the road for a conference match today at 4:30. Fountain Lake has a home conference match against Lisa Academy (1-6, 0-5), and Hot Springs will host Benton (16-4, 10-1).