Lady Cobras return to state semifinals in ‘rebuilding year’

FOUNTAIN LAKE — Before the start of the season, Fountain Lake head volleyball coach Tina Moore characterized this year as “a rebuilding year” after graduating five of the team’s six starters from the winningest squad in the school’s history.

A year ago, the Lady Cobras went 29-3, losing in the semifinals to Baptist Prep at Batesville after a 24-0 start to the season.

This season, with a squad mostly consisting of underclassmen and a freshman setter, the Lady Cobras once again made it to the semifinals before losing to eventual Class 3A state champion Paris to end the season, 16-7.

“That’s a pretty good rebuilding year,” Moore said with a laugh. “I’ll take that rebuilding every time. We started out a little rocky, a little slow, trying to find our groove, trying to find out where to put people. We did a lot of mixing up and changing and experimenting along the way.

“We had our ups and downs, like we knew we should. We lost some games that we probably could have won, and we probably won some games that we didn’t expect to just because we had good rhythm, good chemistry and energy. All in all, when it meshed, it meshed all at the right time.”

The season did start with a surprising loss as the Lady Cobras dropped their first match, 3-2, to Malvern, the first time that the Lady Leopards had defeated Fountain

Lake in Moore’s tenure as head coach. They then went on to win their next eight matches, including wins over Class 6A Bryant, Baptist Prep and Class

5A Jacksonville.

Last season, the Lady Cobras lost in the second round of the 4A-South district tournament to Mena before defeating Ashdown for the No. 3 seed going into the state tournament. This year, after winning the regular season, Fountain Lake made it to the finals of the 3A-South district tournament, losing to eventual Class

3A state runner-up Ashdown.

“This year we won conference and went into the district tournament,” Moore said. “We lost to Ashdown to put us at two, which put us in the bottom half against Paris.

“Yes, we knew going in that would be a tough place to be, but I think from my perspective, I tried to keep them focused on one day at a time and not look ahead. … I wanted us to look at Game 1 and Game 2 and whatever happened happened. It just so happened they jelled so awesome; they jelled wonderfully in the Harding (Academy) game that we just looked like a championship team.”

Fountain Lake swept Clinton and Harding Academy in the first two rounds of the state tournament before facing the host team, Paris, in the semifinal.

“We all know that Paris is the pinnacle of 3A right now, the four-time three-peat champion,” Moore explained. “We didn’t go in scared. We went in, and we gave it our best shot, and we weren’t afraid to play them.

“We just knew that we had to be our best, and we knew that we had to get lucky with them not being their best. To be honest, I think they played the best game they played against us in the semis. That’s what the Paris coach said to us.”

Both Moore and assistant coach Michaela Biehslich were in attendance Saturday at Bank OZK Arena to watch Paris sweep Ashdown in the final, but while Biehslich did not feel any better about the loss by seeing the Lady Eagles win, Moore said it tempered the loss somewhat.

“I think had they not won it Saturday, I would have said, ‘Oh my gosh, that could have been us,’” Moore said. “Paris is hard to beat.”

Biehslich said part of the reason Paris is so hard to defeat is the tradition and experience it brings to the tournament.

“I think they play so well under that pressure because they’ve been in that atmosphere where Ashdown hasn’t,” she said. “It’s a whole new stage. For us, I’m not saying that we would have been any different. The pressure could have totally got us, but Paris is so calm, cool and collected under that pressure.”

Moore said the crowd for the semifinal was unlike any she had seen before, estimating that over 80 percent of the fans were locals rooting for their Lady Eagles.

“That home crowd brought Paris so much energy,” she said. “It was standing-room-only. Their crowd was into it. The entire town was there. It was a huge stage for our girls to play on.

“We had some awesome, awesome rallies. We hung with them. We played super good, but they’re just, like I said, they’re the pinnacle.”

Moore said she is “excited about what next year brings.”

“The future of Fountain Lake volleyball is bright,” she said.