Washington County Enterprise-Leader
Lady Cardinals Run The Table
FARMINGTON — Farmington celebrated a never before accomplishment in running the 4A-1 Conference table winning all 12 league volleyball matches with a sweep at Harrison Thursday.
By virtue of that shining achievement, the Lady Cardinals took a No. 1 seed and bye into the district semifinal into Tuesday’s tournament at Huntsville where they awaited to see which team among Gentry, Gravette, Huntsville or Shiloh Christian would advance as their opponent.
The Lady Cardinals celebrated senior night and an undefeated season at home by sweeping Gentry, 25-7, 25-14, 25-14, on Tuesday, Oct. 15. Farmington closed out the regular season with a sweep of Harrison on the road Thursday to run the table in 4A-1 league play this season. The Lady Cardinals finished 19-3-1 overall and 12-0 in conference to claim their first-ever regular season conference championship.
Gentry hung around for a little while during the third and decisive set. Addy Cassell’s ace gave Farmington a 10-6 lead which was extended to 13-6 on Brittany Pittman’s tip-kill and Paige Anderson’s scrambling recovery to send a dig back over the net catching Gentry by surprise.
Farmington junior Addison Fenton smashed a kill ending a
Gentry 7-2 run after the Lady Cardinals built a 23-8 advantage on Kally Stout’s kill. Farmington had reached game-point and match-point leading 24-11 on a service error by Gentry, but couldn’t put the Lady Pioneers away until Fenton pounded the final point home.
Gentry coach Erica Jones was hoping her girls (5-15-1) peak at the right time coming into the district tournament.
“We’ve got a lot of good things going on. We just need to put all the pieces together,” Jones said. “They’re learning from each game. They’re improving with each game. We just got to get it all together at the right time.”
Farmington seeks to lock in a good seed for the State 4A volleyball tournament to be held at Morrilton, Oct. 29-31. The Lady Cardinals also would like to haul home some more hardware by winning the district tournament. A win Tuesday puts them into the 4A-1 championship Thursday at 6:30 p.m. The semifinal loser drops into the consolation match at 5 p.m. Thursday.